Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 305 - Yemen War Mosaic 305

Yemen Press Reader 305: Kinderbräute im Krieg – Gefangene, Geheimgefängnisse – Opfer des US-Angriffs im Jemen –Terrorismus im Westen und Nahost – Trump und die Saudis – Golf: Streit mit Katar

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Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Child brides in war – Detainees, secret prisons – Victims of US raid in Yemen – Terrorism in the West and the Middle East – Trump and the Saudis – Rift between Gulf States and Qatar – and more

Schwerpunkte / Key aspects

Klassifizierung / Classification

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

cp2 Allgemein / General

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche/ UN and peace talks

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

cp9 USA

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

cp13b Söldner / Mercenaries

cp13c Flüchtlinge / Refugees

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

cp15 Propaganda

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

Klassifizierung / Classification

***

**

*

(Kein Stern / No star)

A = Aktuell / Current news

B = Hintergrund / Background

C = Chronik / Chronicle

D = Details

E = Wirtschaft / Economy

H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions

K = Krieg / War

P = Politik / Politics

PH = Pro-Houthi

PS = Pro-Saudi

T = Terrorismus / Terrorism

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Konflikt mit Katar / Qatar conflict: cp12a

27.5.2017 – AP (** B H)

GIRLS ARE INCREASINGLY BEING MARRIED OFF IN WAR-TORN YEMEN

Child marriages are mounting dramatically in the Arab world's poorest country, fueled by a war that has thrown society into turmoil.

As the fighting grinds on in its third year, millions of families are unable to make ends meet, and more than 3 million people have been driven from their homes, ending up in camps. For families desperate for cash, unable to support their children or afraid they cannot protect their daughter's "virtue," marrying off a girl becomes the solution.

UNICEF said in March that early marriage in Yemen has become "alarmingly widespread." In a survey conducted in September in six provinces, 72 percent of female respondents said they got married before 18 - compared with around 50 percent in surveys before the war - and about 44 percent said they were wedded before they turned 15, the organization said.

"Parents marry off their daughters to be relieved of the cost of their care or because they believe a husband's family can offer better protection," UNICEF said. "Families also seek dowry payments to cope with conflict-related hardship."

Local organizations working to end child marriage point to what they consider numerous egregious cases.

Because of the fighting between government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition on one side and Houthi rebels supported by forces loyal to the country's former president on the other, more than 400,000 girls under 18 have lost their homes, and many of them are living in refugee camps. Hundreds of thousands of girls have lost access to schooling, and when girls are not in school, many families start to think about marrying them off.

Child marriage is growing dramatically in the camps, said Najlaa Mohammed, with the Yemen Women Union. Sometimes, she said, the father fears his daughter will be raped and seeks a husband in hopes of protecting her. Other times, it is purely for the money, she said.

Once common in rural areas, child marriage is also sweeping into cities because of the conflict, said Nabil Fadel, head of the National Organization to Combat Human Trafficking.

"Imagine for the past six months, there were no salaries, soaring unemployment and poverty," he said. For men who stand to benefit financially by marrying off their daughters early, "it's hard to resist."

International organizations warn that child brides are in danger of domestic violence. - BY AHMED AL-HAJ AND MAGGIE MICHAEL

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN_CHILD_MARRIAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-27-02-37-28 = http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/15313844.-/

26.5.2017 – Human Rights Watch (** B P)

Yemen: Ramadan an Opportunity for Detainees

Free Prisoners Wrongfully Held; Ensure Access to Family, Lawyers

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on May 27, 2017 in Yemen, provides the parties to the armed conflict an opportunity to remedy the wrongful treatment of detainees, Human Rights Watch said today.

Houthi-Saleh forces, Yemeni-government forces, and forces backed by the United Arab Emirates should free those arbitrarily held, ensure detainees have access to lawyers and family members, and reveal the fate or whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared. The forces should also release children and others being needlessly held and hold to account officials responsible for mistreatment.

Houthi-Saleh Forces
Yemeni rights groups have documented hundreds of cases of people arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared by Houthi forces or forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Human Rights Watch has documented 65 cases in which Houthi-Saleh forces arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared people, including two deaths in custody and 11 cases of alleged torture or other ill-treatment, including the abuse of a child.

Houthi-Saleh forces appear to have arrested many people because of their perceived links to Islah, a Sunni opposition party.

Houthi-Saleh forces have also harassed and arbitrarily detained members of the Baha’i religious community

Scores of detainees are being held at unofficial detention sites in territory controlled by Houthi-Saleh forces.

Pro-Yemeni Government Forces; UAE-Backed Security Forces
In areas of the country effectively controlled by the Yemeni government, backed by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, Yemeni human rights groups and lawyers have documented hundreds of cases of people arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared.

The southern port city of Aden is currently home to multiple, often competing, security forces and militias. These forces are arresting and detaining people, and operating unofficial detention sites

Government officials and other sources reported that there are numerous informal detention facilities and secret prisons in Aden and the eastern governorate of Hadramawt. The UAE operates at least two detention facilities, including at al-Riyan airport in Mukalla. Various smaller detention facilities are located in military camps controlled by various security forces.

In Aden, many of those arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared were arrested by “the Security Belt,” a force created in spring 2016. It is officially under the Interior Ministry but is funded, trained, and directed by the UAE, said several activists, lawyers, and government officials.

In Hadramawt, the UAE-backed “al-Nukhba,” also known as the Hadrami Elite Forces, has arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of men since spring 2016.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/26/yemen-ramadan-opportunity-detainees

27.5.2017 – Yemen Extra (** A P)

Qatar Information against UAE ;Exposing Secret Prisons in Yemen

The State of Qatar has raised the pace of media confrontation with UAE against the background of the crisis of statements attributed to the Emir of Qatar, which the Qatari government denied but that UAE and Saudi media ignored the negation.
Al-Jazeera Channel of Qatar, a major point of contention, broadcast a report Thursday accusing the United Arab Emirates of running secret prisons in Aden, Mukala and Socotra and equipping Yemeni forces outside the Traitor’s power in southern Yemen.

Al-Jazeera said that there are secret prisons which are run outside the law by military organizations which are out of control of Yemeni authorities and are under supervision of UAE forces.

According to Al-Jazeera report monitored by the AlMurasilNet, that there are Emirate officers in Mukala, the capital of Hadramout which run the arrests, including an Emirate officer named Abu Yusuf and another officer Abu Abdullah.

The report said that the forces of the security belt and the Elite Forces in Hadramout are directly under the forces of UAE.

Al-Jazeera’s report included a list of UAE detention camps in Aden and the practicing of detainees as follows:

UAE detention Centers in Aden:

Khor Mukasar Detention Center

Ishreen Detention Center

Security Belt Detention center

Bir Ahmad Detention Center

Mu’askar Inshat Detention Center

Al-Bariqah Detention Center

Detention center in Zulmat village

Detention Center in Tawahi

Khalij Fil Detention Center

Fourth Administration Detention Center

Jabal Hadid Detention Center

7 October Detention Center

Mukala-Hadramout Detention Centers:

It is overseen by the United States military and is carrying out horrific types of violations, the most important of which are:

Al-Rayyan Detention Center inside Airport

Detention Center of Dhabba Port

Detention Center of Rabwah

Detention Center of Republican Palace

Gail bin Yameen Detention Center

http://www.yemenextra.net/2017/05/27/qatar-information-against-uae-exposing-secret-prisons-in-yemen/

25.5.2017 – Aljazeera Arabic (** A P)

Film: Secret prisons in # Aden, Mukalla and Socotra are run by military formations beyond the control of the Yemeni authority, overseen by UAE forces (in Arabic)

https://twitter.com/AJArabic/status/867730728955531264

25.5.2017 – The New Khalij (** A P)

International organization: Yemeni secret prisons outlawed by an Emirati administration

The secret organization of rights and freedoms, based in Geneva, has uncovered secret prisons in the cities of Aden, Mukalla, Socotra and Hadramout in southern Yemen, which are run outside the law by military formations outside the control of the Yemeni authority.

in the areas controlled by the legitimate government - especially the provinces of Aden and Hadramout - away from the supervision and supervision of the judiciary.

They are run by military formations, including the security belt forces in Aden and the urban elite forces in Mukalla, which are directly under the supervision of the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Arab Alliance.

She stressed that detainees in these secret prisons are subjected to various types of physical and psychological torture, and deprived of the most basic rights guaranteed by the Yemeni Constitution and international laws.

Sam said that the arrest of the defendants is carried out without orders and directly ordered by those supervising the elite forces of Hadramiya, operating outside the control of the local authority and its decisions are independent.

https://medium.com/thenewkhalij/%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AC%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%A5%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%A9-3077d908ee41 and in translation: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=de&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ar&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://medium.com/thenewkhalij/%25D9%2585%25D9%2586%25D8%25B8%25D9%2585%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25AF%25D9%2588%25D9%2584%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25B3%25D8%25AC%25D9%2588%25D9%2586-%25D8%25B3%25D8%25B1%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9-%25D9%258A%25D9%2585%25D9%2586%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25AE%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B1%25D8%25AC%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25B9%25D9%2586-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D9%2582%25D8%25A7%25D9%2586%25D9%2588%25D9%2586-%25D8%25A8%25D8%25A5%25D8%25AF%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B1%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25A5%25D9%2585%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B1%25D8%25A7%25D8%25AA%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9-3077d908ee41&usg=ALkJrhi5R9tlzz-qh-YigPbEVFb7N2voFQ

28.5.2017 – The Intercept (** A K T)

VILLAGERS SAY YEMENI CHILD WAS SHOT AS HE TRIED TO FLEE NAVY SEAL RAID

FIVE CIVILIANS INCLUDING a child were killed and another five were wounded in the latest U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Yemen, according to eyewitness accounts gathered by The Intercept.

The raid by U.S. commandos in the hamlet of al Adhlan, in the Yemeni province of Mareb on May 23, also destroyed at least four homes. Navy SEALs, with air support from more than half a dozen attack helicopters and aircraft, were locked in a firefight with Yemeni tribesmen for over an hour, according to local residents.

Yet village residents gave a list of 10 names of civilians killed and wounded during the raid. Fifteen-year-old Abdullah Saeed Salem al Adhal was shot dead as he fled from his home with women and children. Another child, 12-year-old Othman Mohammed Saleh al Adhal, was injured but survived.

An additional seven men who were guests in one house in the village were also killed, according to a senior figure in al Adhlan whose name is being withheld for fear of reprisals from AQAP. He was not able to identify the guests but they appear to account for the seven Al Qaeda militants Central Command claimed were killed.

College student Murad al Adhal, 22, the elder brother of 15-year-old Abudullah who was shot and killed, described how he woke to the sound of gunfire around 1:30 a.m. as the SEALs took control of buildings on the mountainside overlooking the village.

“I walked out of my house and I saw the nearby hills were filled with the American soldiers,” he said. When Apache helicopter gunships began firing into buildings, women and children started running out of their homes. “My little brother Abdullah ran for his life with the other women and children. They killed him as he was running.” Murad was shot in the leg.

Residents in al Adhlan described to The Intercept how commandos also shot dead unarmed Nasser Ali Mahdi al Adhal, who was at least 70 years-old.

Local residents estimated some 40 to 60 commandos stormed the village with the support of eight or nine attack helicopters and other aircraft that repeatedly strafed the villagers’ homes. Dozens of animals — livestock belonging to the villagers — were also killed in the barrage of gunfire and airstrikes.

The Intercept collected these accounts through phone interviews with residents and activists who visited the hospital where the wounded were taken.

The aim of the al Adhlan raid was to gather electronic equipment such as cell phones and laptops in order to gain “insight into AQAP’s disposition, capabilities and intentions,” according to Central Command’s statement.

The accounts given by al Adhlan residents throw into question the veracity of U.S. official accounts. The eyewitness testimony also raises serious questions about intelligence gathering methods and the ability of decision-makers to determine who is and who is not an Al Qaeda militant amidst Yemen’s multifaceted conflict where loyalties are fluid and pragmatically based.

The senior figure from the village described a long-running confrontation over the issue of locals providing guest-houses for Al Qaeda militants.

The accounts given by al Adhlan residents throw into question the veracity of U.S. official accounts. The eyewitness testimony also raises serious questions about intelligence gathering methods and the ability of decision-makers to determine who is and who is not an Al Qaeda militant amidst Yemen’s multifaceted conflict where loyalties are fluid and pragmatically based.

The senior figure from the village described a long-running confrontation over the issue of locals providing guest-houses for Al Qaeda militants.

But the reaction from the villagers after the raid was one of anger toward all sides: Al Qaeda, the U.S. government, the Yemeni government, as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Local residents say Emerati forces were involved in the raid alongside U.S. forces, which was also the case in the January operation in al Ghayil.

One of those killed in the May 23 raid, Al Khader Saleh Salem al Adhal, was a soldier in the Yemeni army currently fighting on the U.S.-supported side in the country’s complex civil war – by Iona Craig

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/28/villagers-say-yemeni-child-was-shot-as-he-tried-to-flee-navy-seal-raid/

24.5.2017 – Medium (*** B P T)

Our children in Manchester paid the price of business as usual

A price some Western and Muslim leaders are all too willing to pay

A growing body of work shows that radicalised ‘jihadis’ who proudly go on to murder and rape other people en masse are more likely to be depressed and socially isolated than others from similar backgrounds.

A new report by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague has thrown light on this line of inquiry, confirming a very real correlation between violent extremist sympathies, depressive symptoms and a sense of social alienation.

The psychology of radicalisation

Propaganda

So what is it that pushes someone from this confluence of depression, alienation, and ‘social defeat’ into violence? In the case of ISIS, the research to date shows that most people who join up or sympathise are attracted to the group’s promise of meaning — a twisted, but seductive theology of heroic salvation.

Inner emptiness

This dynamic is not unique to ISIS, or to Islamist extremism.

Extremist movements offer their adherents a sense of belonging, meaning and purpose that they cannot find around them.

Partners

While his [Trump] characterisation of Abedi and his ilk as evil losers could not be more apt in capturing the pathetic inner reality that defines them; the US president’s prognosis reveals the very same pathology he condemns.

“The terrorists and extremists and those who give them aid and comfort must be driven out from our society forever,” declared Trump. How?

Yet just days earlier Trump had signed his very own pact with the devil: a $110 billion arms deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Trump has no intention of obliterating the ideology of ISIS. Instead he is partnering quite deliberately with the country he accused of complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “Take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents,” he demanded not long ago.

And rightly so.

Mark Curtis, the leading revisionist historian of British foreign policy and author of Secret Affairs: British collusion with radical Islam, lays out a detailed exploration of just a fraction of the evidence demonstrating specifically British collusion in Saudi Arabia’s support for Islamist terror.

“The ‘war on terror’ is a joke when your leading ally is the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism,” he writes. “The backing of Saudi Arabia is part of a broader story: that British governments, both Labour and Conservative, have, in pursuing the so-called ‘national interest’ abroad, colluded for decades not only with the arch-sponsor of radical Islamism in Riyadh but sometimes with radical groups themselves, including terrorist organisations. They have connived with them, and often trained and financed them, in order to promote specific foreign policy objectives.”

The Kingdom and ISIS

As the collapsed UK trial of Bherlin Gildo corroborated, the Libya ‘rat-line’ led straight to Syria. There were close ties and weapons transfers between the NATO-backed operation in Benghazi and al-Qaeda affiliated rebels in Syria.

The connection between reckless Anglo-American policies from Libya to Syria, and the erosion of our national security, lies before us in broad daylight.

Far from exerting “pressure” on Saudi Arabia to cease its “clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIS”, the Trump administration is instead supplying more arms to the very country which US government officials privately acknowledged is the chief state-sponsor of Islamist terrorism.

Yet Trump was merely following Theresa May’s lead.

Back in May, the Prime Minister defended the British government’s ongoing alliance with the world’s chief terror sponsor:

At what point will we recognise that terrorism is neither simply a ‘Western creation’ nor a ‘Muslim problem’ — but rather that the policies as well as the social, political, cultural and economic structures of both the Muslim and Western worlds have incubated a state of prolonged crisis from which the violence of extremist terror will continue to emerge without a drastic change of course? - By Nafeez Ahmed

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-manchester-attack-was-the-price-of-business-as-usual-6a74f385912f

My comment: Brilliant. Another article, by Max Blumenthal: http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/manchester-bombing-covert-proxy-wars

23.5.2017 – The Independent (** B P)

The only real way to stop atrocities like the Manchester attack is to end the wars which allow extremism to grow

To end these wars, there needs to be political compromise between main players like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Donald Trump's belligerent rhetoric this week makes this almost impossible to achieve

President Trump leaves the Middle East today, having done his bit to make the region even more divided and mired in conflict than it was before.

At the same moment that Donald Trump was condemning the suicide bomber in Manchester as “an evil loser in life”, he was adding to the chaos in which al-Qaeda and Isis have taken root and flourished.

It may be a long distance between the massacre in Manchester and the wars in the Middle East, but the connection is there.

He blamed “terrorism” almost exclusively on Iran and, by implication, on the Shia minority in the region, while al-Qaeda notoriously developed in the Sunni heartlands and its beliefs and practises primarily stem from Wahhabism, the sectarian and regressive variant of Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia.

It flies in the face of all known facts to link the wave of terrorist atrocities since 9/11 on the Shia, who have most usually been its target.

This toxic historical myth-making does not deter Trump.

By furiously attacking Iran, Trump will encourage Saudi Arabia and Gulf monarchs to escalate their proxy wars throughout the central core of the Middle East. It will encourage Iran to take precautions and assume that a long-term understanding with the US and the Sunni states is becoming less and less feasible.

There are already some signs that Trump’s endorsement of Sunni states, however repressive, is leading to an escalation of hostilities between Sunni and Shia.

The only feasible way to eliminate organisations capable of carrying out these attacks is to end the seven wars – Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and north east Nigeria – that cross-infect each other and produce the anarchic conditions in which Isis and al-Qaeda and their clones can grow. – by Patrick Cockburn

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/manchester-attack-terrorism-isis-salman-abedi-end-middle-east-wars-extremism-grows-a7752181.html

27.5.2017 – The Baltimore Sun (** B P)

Cal Thomas: Saudi Arabia's duplicity

Trusting Saudi Arabia to combat terrorists and extremists and "drive them out," as President Trump called on the kingdom and other Arab and Muslim nations to do in his Riyadh speech, is akin to forging an alliance with the Ku Klux Klan to combat racism and anti-Semitism. Saudi Arabia has for years promoted the very evil they now "commit" to fighting through a newly established Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. Never forget that 15 of the 9-11 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

President Trump's speech was written by Westerners, delivered by a westerner and based on a faulty western premise, namely, that radical Muslims can be persuaded to abandon their goal of establishing a worldwide caliphate. It is a central theological principle of Wahhabism

No reporter asked the central question that should have been put to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir during his press availability with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Since Saudi Arabia's domestic and foreign policy is based on a theological worldview, have those views changed and if so, how did that "revelation" come to you?

Arab and Muslim leaders have long said one thing to the West and the opposite to their own people. This is not "breaking news." The surprise is that Westerners continue to fall for it.

A policy forged in theology is not about to be changed by the urging of "infidels." - by Cal Thomas

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-cal-thomas-saudi-arabia-s-duplicity-20170524-story.html

27.5.2017 – Salon (** A P)

Donald in Arabia: What did we learn from Trump’s encounter with the Saudi monarchy?

While Trump's visit to the famously repressive Saudi kingdom was quite a show, U.S. policy looks awfully familiar

The oddity of Trump’s visit to Riyadh provided a seemingly endless stream of social media snark, along with more serious criticism of the White House’s approach to the Middle East, which seems based on, well, giving a speech. In fairness, there were hints of strategy to be found in Trump’s 3,400–word address, but instead of the dramatic break from the past that the administration had promised, the White House strategy seems awfully familiar.

As much as the Trump administration and the Saudis want to get past the Barack Obama years, the former president hovered like a ghost throughout Trump’s two-day visit.

The same goes with Trump’s plan to fight terrorism financing through something called the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center. It is hard not to notice a reinventing-the-wheel quality to this initiative, given that the Obama team pursued terrorist financing with vigor, though the policy’s origins lie in President George W. Bush’s administration and the fraught weeks and months after the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

It was not actually the continuities with Obama’s policies that was most striking about Trump’s speech in Riyadh. There was a 1979 feel about the president’s words, specifically a feeling reminiscent of November 1979. That was the month when Commentary magazine, the tribune of the neoconservative movement, published Jeane Kirkpatrick’s essay “Dictatorships and Double Standards.” It was a seminal article at a time when Washington’s strategic position seemed to be under threat globally.

In other words, many of the heads of state and ministers who gathered to hear the president may have been dictatorial bastards, but at least they shared his interest in “bombing the [expletive] out of [the self-declared Islamic State].”

Yet when it comes to defeating extremism and transnational terrorists, Trump is making a mistake by essentially giving the leaders of some of the most repressive governments on Earth license to crack down on their people even more.

As much as the suggestion that repression can lead to radicalization angers these leaders and their supporters, there is no getting around the fact that with each unhappy encounter with the state more people become willing to turn to violence and extremism.

For all of the downright weirdness of Trump’s visit to Riyadh — the glowing orb, the president’s apparent fondness for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s shoes — it also demonstrated a remarkable consistency in American foreign policy – by Steven A. Cook

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/27/donald-in-arabia-what-did-we-learn-from-trumps-encounter-with-the-saudi-monarchy/

27.5.2017 – Washington Post (** A P)

By backing Saudi Arabia’s vision of the Middle East, Trump may be sowing the seeds of conflict

In a speech intended to galvanize Arab and Muslim leaders against threats from extremists and Iran, President Trump demanded unity from his audience in Saudi Arabia, and focus.

But instead of peace, the Middle East was battered by a wave of conflict in the days that followed, awash with recriminations and repression that suggested that, far from uniting the region, Trump’s words had only aggravated its divides.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia launched a bizarre and unexpected war of words that highlighted their longtime competition for regional influence and their often sharply contrasting visions.

As that dispute raged last week, the leaders of Bahrain and Egypt embarked on unusually vicious crackdowns on political opponents at home, killing five people and arresting hundreds.

Analysts said the tensions were almost surely a consequence of Trump’s visit to Riyadh: a forceful American endorsement of Saudi leadership in the Arab world, punctuated by the weapons sales, which had stirred panic and anxiety among the kingdom’s competitors and enemies while emboldening its loyal and authoritarian allies.

And Trump’s appeal for a common stand against terrorism was unlikely to heal the rifts, analysts said: It was delivered to an audience of Arab leaders who have applied the term so broadly and casually — to violent militants as well as anti-government bloggers — as to render the word almost meaningless.

“Donald Trump now accepts the view of Saudi Arabia as a strategic bastion in the Arab and Islamic World,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle East studies at the London School of Economics. And his visit was “related” to the tumult that ensued, Gerges said.

“What you are seeing now is that the Saudi-led coalition feels empowered. They are on the offensive. It’s a new era. Everyone has to toe the line and join this alliance,” he said.

The consequences of the shift could trouble the region for years, he said, by intensifying proxy wars in Yemen or Syria, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have supported opposing sides, Gerges said.

“All sides are preparing for the next round,” Gerges said. – By Kareem Fahim and Erin Cunningham

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/by-backing-saudi-arabias-vision-of-the-middle-east-trump-may-be-sowing-the-seeds-of-conflict/2017/05/27/3afcda92-4181-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_story.html?utm_term=.abbd76654fae

26.5.2017 – NTV / The European (** A P)

Trumps Kniefall vor den Saudis ist fatal

Donald Trump macht seine erste Auslandsreise ausgerechnet zum saudischen König. Er hofiert einen dubiosen Despoten, den er vor Kurzem noch als Paten des Islamismus attackiert hatte. Die Folgen sind gefährlich.

Menschenrechtsorganisationen sehen Salmans Saudi-Arabien unter den 10 autoritärsten Staaten der Welt.

Ausgerechnet diesem Regime hat Donald Trump nun die Ehre seiner ersten Auslandreise als gewählter Präsident gewährt. Dem Staatsbesuch liegt eine groteske Verdrehung von Wahrheiten und Loyalitäten zugrunde. Trumps Wahlkampf-Tweets wie “In Saudi-Arabien leben nur Angeber, Rabauken und Feiglinge. Sie haben Geld, aber keinen Mumm” oder “Saudi-Arabien soll seine Kriege alleine führen” werden nun ins direkte Gegenteil verkehrt.

Trump wertet das Riad-Regime nicht nur moralisch und machtpolitisch enorm auf. Er begründet mit den zwielichtigen Herrschern zugleich ein offensives Militärbündnis gegen Iran. Bei ihrem Treffen im Murabba-Königspalast vereinbarten die beiden Staatschefs den größten Rüstungsauftrag der US-Geschichte.

Der Vorteil für die schillernde Reise liegt aus Trumps Sicht in schnellen Großaufträgen, in einer schnellen Allianz, in schneller Weltbühnen-PR gegen innenpolitische Skandale, in einer schnellen 100-Millionen-Dollar-Spende für den Weltbank-Frauen-Fonds von Ivanka Trump, in einer schnellen Grußbotschaft an Israel, dass man Iran als den größten Bösewicht gemeinsam bekämpft.

Den schnellen Motiven stehen freilich längerfristige Schäden und Risiken gegenüber. Trump setzt unnötigerweise alles auf die Karte Riad und befeuert damit die Erzfeindschaft zwischen Iran und Saudi-Arabien. Er schürt den Flächenbrand im Nahen Osten und dessen Kriege in Jemen und Syrien mehr, als dass er sie befriedet. Wo Barack Obama neue Brücken nach Teheran gebaut hat, reißt Donald Trump diese mit Wucht wieder ein.

Insgesamt stärkt Trump eine aggressive Diktatur und legitimiert dessen islamistische Machenschaften – bis hin zur Verstrickung Saudi-Arabiens in die Attentate vom 11. September.

Fazit: Strategisch wird die Golfregion destabilisiert, Iran isoliert und der Westen mit dieser Trump-Salman-Allianz moralisch und machtpolitisch eher geschwächt – von Wolfram Weimer

http://www.n-tv.de/politik/politik_person_der_woche/Trumps-Kniefall-vor-den-Saudis-ist-fatal-article19854945.html = http://www.theeuropean.de/wolfram-weimer/12272-Koenig-salman-und-der-us-praesident

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Cholera / Most important: Cholera

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt28.5.2017 – T-Online (** A H)

Cholera-Ausbruch von alarmierendem Ausmaß

Die Epidemie breitet sich rasend schnell aus, ein Kampf gegen die Zeit.

Ohne die notwendigen Notfallmaßnahmen könnte eine Viertelmillion Menschen in den nächsten sechs Monaten an der lebensgefährlichen Darminfektion erkranken, berichtete der Landesleiter der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) im Jemen, Nevio Zagaria, am Freitag telefonisch aus dem Krisengebiet.

Täglich kommen 2.000 Neuerkrankungen hinzu. Die Cholera verursacht starken Durchfall und Erbrechen und ist besonders für Kinder, Alte und Kranke lebensbedrohlich. Die Ärmsten und Schwächsten der Gesellschaft sind besonders gefährdet – und besonder oft betroffen. Man rechnet mit 13 Millionen Menschen, die nicht ausreichend zu Essen haben, diese Menschen sind in ganz besonders hohem Maße gefährdet.

Zagaria zeichnete eine desolate Lage: der Strom funktioniere nicht mehr, deshalb fielen Wasserpumpen aus und die Menschen hätten nur noch verschmutztes Trinkwasser zur Verfügung. Da die internationale Gemeinschaft nicht genügend Geld für die Noteinsätze zur Gesundheitsversorgung und zur Bereitstellung von Wasser und Abwasserdiensten bereitstelle, seien Tausende Menschen akut bedroht.

Die WHO habe zwar bereits 50 Behandlungszentren für Cholera-Patienten eingerichtet, nötig seien aber bis zu 350. Die Krankenhäuser seien überrannt, viele aber kaum funktionsfähig. Das Gesundheitssystem des Jemen, das auch noch mit regelmäßigen Malaria und Dengue-Fieber Ausbrüchen kämpfen muss, ist ohnehin bereits beinahe kollabiert. Die meisten Mitarbeiter der Krankenhäuser seien seit sechs Monaten nicht mehr bezahlt worden, so Zagaria. Der Landesleiter der WHO appellierte an die Weltgemeinschaft, wenigstens die Bezahlung der Mitarbeiter im Gesundheitswesen sicherzustellen.

Nach Angaben der Hilfsorganisation Aktion gegen den Hunger sind die Kinder im Jemen besonders betroffen. Die geschwächten und oft unzureichend ernährten Kinderkörper, haben der Infektion nichts entgegenzusetzen.

http://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/krisen/id_81222078/jemen-cholera-epidemie-nimmt-alarmierende-ausmasse-an.html

Mein Kommentar: Die Zahlen in diesem Artikel sind schon wieder veraltet; die Nachricht von Zagarias Statement ist auch schon einige Tage alt, bis sie hier einmal auf Deutsch erschien.

28.5.2017 - UN Population Fund (** A H)

Statement by Regional Director for Arab States on the Cholera Outbreak

With some 2,000 suspected cases reported daily, the recent and unprecedented cholera outbreak in Yemen threatens the lives of 1.1 million malnourished pregnant women, who need immediate care and reproductive health services.

Malnourished pregnant and lactating women are more likely to contract cholera and have a higher risk of bleeding, developing complications and death during childbirth.

Women can play a critical role in controlling its spread if they can ensure a certain level of hygiene, particularly when they prepare food for the family as cholera, which is a diarrhoeal infection, can be easily spread through contaminated food or water.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/statement-regional-director-arab-states-cholera-outbreak-enar

27.5.2017 – Rajat Madhok, UNICEF (** A H)

Latest on #cholera in #Yemen :

52000 suspected cases reported of which 13735 cases reported in the last 5 days alone! 478 associated deaths

https://twitter.com/RajatMadhok/status/868687614563540992

27.5.2017 – Rajat Madhok, UNICEF (* A H)

At a water treatment site, @RelanoMeritxell pledged to continue fighting the deadly #cholera with safe water, chlorine tabs, med supplies (photos)

https://twitter.com/RajatMadhok/status/868481428526428160

27.5.2017 – Yemen Post (* A H)

Medical MASSACRE: 454 civilians killed in #Yemen by #Cholera epidemic & 1000s could die soon while world silent at #Saudi imposed siege.

https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/868541764516409348

25.5.2017 – World Health Organization (** A H)

Yemen: Acute Watery Diarrhea / Cholera Outbreak - Situation Report #3 25 May 2017

Situation Overview

The number of acute watery diarrhea (AWD)/ suspected cholera cases continue to increase at unprecedented level in Yemen. More than half of the total cases have been reported in Sana’a City (Amanat Al-Asimah), Hajjah, Amran and Sana’a governorates.

From 27 April to 24 May 2017, a total of 42,207 suspected cholera/ AWD cases were reported from 19 governorate. Out of the total reported cases, 420 deaths were reported (1% case fatality rate).

The number of deaths reported over the last four weeks is almost three times higher than deaths reported from October 2016 to March 2017.

A total of 313 cholera cases have been confirmed by laboratory testing.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-acute-watery-diarrhea-cholera-outbreak-situation-report-3-25-may-2017 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Situation%20report%20Cholera%20in%20Yemen%2C%2025%20May%202017-2.pdf

My comment: These figures are already outdated.

28.5.2017 – Yemen Today TV (* A H)

Film: World Health Organization confirms rise in cholera victims to 420 cases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6fhwiW_hs

27.5.2017 – Fars News (* A H)

Rights Group Warns Cholera Likely to Kill 1000s Yemenis until July

Save the Children organization warned that cholera outbreak in Yemen would claim lives of thousands of people if the deadly disease is not brought under control until July.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960306001193

27.5.2017 – UNICEF (* A H)

#Yemen: We're working tirelessly to combat cholera & are supporting Diarrhoea Treatment Centre in Modiyah District of Abyan (Southern Yemen) (photos)

https://twitter.com/UNICEF/status/868617951708151809

27.5.2017 – Almasirah TV (* A H)
Film: Death of 8 cases of cholera in Hodeidah of 3,700 cases of suspicion 27 - 05 - 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRWmkkuXaAw

26.5.2017 – The Young Turks (** A H)

Film: Massive Cholera Outbreak In Yemen

There is a state of emergency in Yemen's capital after a recent outbreak of cholera. John Iadarola (Host of ThinkTank), Chavala Madlena (Investigative Journalist, Filmmaker) discuss on a special episode of The Young Turks previously recorded LIVE at Oslo Freedom Forum. http://www.Squarespace.com/TYT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbbB3_mC5vs

26.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (** A H)

WHO reports 420 cholera deaths, 42,000 suspected cases in Yemen

The World Health Organization Office said that the cholera death toll has increased to 420 deaths, upto Thursday, most of which were recorded in the central province of Ibb, while the number of suspected cases has come to 42,207.

The organization said in a statement that there were 57 death cases in Ibb province, and 52 deaths in the provinces of Hajjah and Amran, north of the country.

Of the total 19 provinces where cholera cases have been registered, no deaths were recorded in the provinces of Lahj, Saada, Marib and Shabwa.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91508

25.5.2017 – TRT (** A H)

Cholera-Epidemie im Jemen. WHO: Zahl der Todesopfer steigt weiter stark an.

m Jemen ist die Zahl der Cholera-Opfer stark angestiegen. Bislang starben 398 Menschen an den Folgen von Cholera. Das Büro der Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO im Jemen veröffentlichte auf Twitter eine Erklärung. Demnach wurden in 19 Provinzen im Jemen seit dem 27. April 38,300 Cholera-Fälle registriert. Etwa ein Drittel des jemenitischen Volkes habe keinen Zugriff an sauberes Trinkwasser. Deshalb könne die Verbreitung der Cholera-Epidemie nicht verhindert werden.

http://www.trt.net.tr/deutsch/welt/2017/05/25/cholera-epidemie-im-jemen-739090

25.5.2017 – Fuad Rajeh (* A H)

Cholera update, Yemen:
The latest statements by UN and ICRC said the death toll from this epidemic has risen to 398. The outbreak has spread and done all this in "four weeks". Suspected cases, around 38.000 now, have been reported in 19 out of 22 Yemen cities. They could reach 300.000 in the next six months.
UN has appealed for urgent funds to face the fast spreading epidemic.

https://www.facebook.com/fuad.rajeh/posts/10208659457956054

25.5.2017 – Doctors Without Borders (** A H)

Film: MSF project coordinator Claire Manera speaking about the #cholera outbreak in #Yemen.

MSF is treating patients of cholera & acute watery diarrhea in #Amran #Hajja #Ibb #Taiz #Aldhale' #Hodaida & #Sanaa & providing logistic support to Al-Sadaqa hospital in #Aden.

*This video was taken on 16th May, 2017.

https://www.facebook.com/MSF.Yemen/videos/1334141066694178/ and a selection https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/867721052943679490

Comment by Judith Brown: Words fail me as this health crisis is man made and predicted - and the world's best kept secret.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155563852828641

23.5.2017 - World Health Organization (** A H)

Yemen: Cholera Outbreak - Integrated Response Plan (23 May 2017)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Yemen is in the grip of a fast spreading cholera outbreak of unprecedented scale. This plan presents an integrated response to the significant upsurge of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/suspected cholera cases1 across the country, since 27 April. Consequently, as of 14 May, a total of 14,000 suspected cases, with 186 associated deaths (1.6% CFR) were reported from 180 districts (18 Governorates). On 14 May, the MoHP declared a state of emergency stating that the health system is unable to contain this unprecedented health and environmental disaster. An additional, 98,126 cases are projected from the high risk districts in the coming six months.

The plan outlines emergency health, WASH and communications interventions to contain and prevent further spread of the outbreak in the 227 high risk districts, where suspected cholera cases were reported during the period October 2016 to May 2017 (see Annex 1 for details). Health and WASH clusters will continually identify priority districts from at high risk districts, by considering the number of caseload and attack rate. As of 15 May, 30 priority high risk districts (10 Governorates) that report over 100 or more suspected cholera cases have been identified.

A total of $ 66.7 million is required to implement activities outlined in this integrated plan for 6 months from May to October 2017, in order to control the outbreak, prevent further spread, and minimize the risk of recurrence. Considering available resources, including $10 million to be allocated through YHPF, the net requirement totals to $55.4 million.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-cholera-outbreak-integrated-response-plan-23-may-2017 and in full: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/cholera_integrated_response_plan_23may2017.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/cholera_integrated_response_plan_23may2017.pdf

21.5.2017 – Middle East Eye (** A H)

Parents watch children take their last breaths, as cholera explodes in Yemen

With 20 cholera deaths and 3,460 suspected cases reported in a single day, a state-of-emergency has been declared in the war-torn country

Hundreds of people have taken over the corridors and lobby of state-run Al-Sabeen hospital in the heart of the Yemeni capital. Their eyes are dry, and they cannot hold back the vomit, as they desperately seek treatment for the cholera epidemic that has rapidly spread throughout the capital.

Some patients, including several children, have stopped breathing. Within a few minutes, doctors announce their deaths as grieving parents watch on.

Doctor Nabil al-Najar, deputy head of Al-Sabeen hospital, goes around checking on patients. He said that hospitals, already worn down by two years of war, were being overwhelmed by the large number of people coming in for care. They receive at least 200 new cases every day in addition to patients who have been injured in air strikes – by Mohammed Hamoud (many photos)

http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/yemen-1847792910

cp2 Allgemein / General

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

29.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A)

Iranian official: Navy's Fleet 47 to sail to southern Yemen upcoming June

An Iranian navy official said on Saturday that the 47th navy's fleet will sail on early June to the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, and to Bab el-Mandeb in southern Yemen to provide security to the shipping lines.

Tasnim News Agency quoted the Coordination Affairs Assistant of the Iranian Navy Biman Jafari as saying “the task assigned to the 47th fleet is to provide security

“This fleet will lead the security operation as a replacement of the 46th fleet that has completed its time in those waters.”

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91557

28.5.2017 – Emirati News Agency (* A K PS)

Coup militias' mines kill 700 civilians in Yemen

The coup militias of Al-Houthi and the ousted Ali Abdullah Saleh have found a way to plant minefields in the cities and governorates from which they withdrew, following the strikes of the government forces and the Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen, as they sought to harm the largest number of unarmed Yemeni citizens.

The Arab Federation for Human Rights has revealed in a report that Houthis have planted more than 500,000 anti-personnel mines in parts of Yemen, killing more than 700 people. Additionally, engineers trained by the Arab Coalition have succeeded in dismantling 40,000 mines, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

For its part, the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations has revealed that women and children are the largest victims of mines, with 924 wounded and 572 others permanently disabled by the explosion of mines planted by the militias.

http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302616469 and also by Saudi Press Agency: http://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1635061

My comment: The figure is uncertain – the “Arab Federation for Human Rights” is strictly anti-Iranian and anti-Houthi, it looks like a 100 % propaganda organization. Website: http://arabfhr.org/?lang=en . This also is the case for "Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations".

27.5.2017 – Yemen Updates (A P)

UAE's MFA, Anwar Gargash, suggests the return of saleh's son to #Yemen. He thinks Ahmed Ali is a key to solve #YemenCrisis!!

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/868470276203401216

27.5.2017 – Living in Yemen on the edge

Photo: Ramadan in #Yemen: a child sleeps on a wrecked car amdist cholera outbreak, famine and the shadows of what was once a blessed land. Arabia Felix, ironically.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1385409848178708/?type=3&theater

27.5.2017 – New York Times (* B K P)

Beautiful Military Equipment’ Can’t Buy Middle East Peace

If past performance is an indicator of future success, another $110 billion worth of weapons will neither reduce “the burden” on the American military nor support “the long-term security of Saudi Arabia,” as the State Department argues. The last time the Saudis spent that kind of money was when they provided billions to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s to arm his war of aggression against Iran. Look what that bought them and the world.

At best, Mr. Trump is extorting our Saudi neighbors, milking them for money they do not have. At worst, he could be turning the United States into Saudi Arabia’s mercenary in the Middle East, a rather ignominious position for America considering where 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers came from.

In other words, something deeply rotten is unfolding in our part of the world.

To avoid the spread of terrorism and militant extremism, responsible leaders in regional and world capitals alike must step up and tackle the momentous challenges at hand. Sword dances and lavish banquets aside, fundamental contradictions must be addressed.

In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is attacking the Ansar Allah group, the one force that has proved adept at beating back Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the most lethal of the global terrorist network’s franchises. The Saudi-led coalition’s Western backers explain their motive as support for “democracy,” even though the concept finds little favor either in Riyadh or among other Arab allies of the United States.

The absurdities of the tragedy in Yemen are sadly echoed in Syria.

Let me be clear: What President Trump called “lots of beautiful military equipment” won’t drain the swamps in which terrorism and extremist militancy fester – by Mohammad Javad Zarif is the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/us-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-iran.html

My comment: When he is right, he is right. Of course, the contrasting picture of Iran he draws in the second part of his article is very positive.

26.5.2017 – Middle East Eye (* B K P)

How the Saudis see the war in Yemen

The Saudis believe it is Iran that has set Yemen aflame. Much of the world sees its own hi-tech military campaign as responsible

It was only when Saleh’s soldiers and the Houthis pushed south to the port of Aden that the Saudis and their coalition partners reluctantly launched an air campaign called Decisive Storm in March 2015. It was, we are told, done on behalf of the internationally recognised Hadi government. As one of the panel says: "We don't need justification, this is a war of necessity not a war of choice."

The Saudis, through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, are supplying US$8.2 billion worth of aid to Yemen, a spokesman for the centre claims.

The defence ministry official informs us that coalition forces have shown themselves to be extremely careful in conducting air strikes, observing all international codes and laws and following up, with the assistance of the British and Americans, in assessing each and every strike through the Joint Incident Assessment Team otherwise known as JIAT.

Saudi Arabia continues to look for diplomatic solutions but at every turn they are thwarted by the Houthis. And the Houthis are backed by Iran.

Numerous NGOs and the UN itself have exhaustively detailed quite a different picture. To quote from just one, the Human Rights Watch World Report 2017:

“Dozens of coalition airstrikes indiscriminately or disproportionately killed and wounded thousands of civilians in violation of the laws of war. The coalition also used internationally banned cluster munitions.”

The report does not spare the Houthi and the Saleh forces either, noting the indiscriminate laying of landmines, abuse of prisoners and the killing of hundreds of civilians with rocket fire in Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia. Even so, the Saudis routinely dismiss such investigations.

But it is Iran that really draws their fire. - by Bill Law

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/how-saudis-see-war-yemen-1717793735

My comment: Well-known propaganda bound together here. The author's viewpoint just can be seen in the last paragraph of the article.

25.5.2017 – Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (* B H K P)

War at Any Price: Domestic and Regional Economic Consequences of Yemen’s Civil War

The civil war in Yemen is now approaching its fourth year, and the rising cost of the conflict in its humanitarian disaster and continued investments by the warring parties in military expenditures suggest that cost is not a deterrent or impediment to war. While the immediate costs to the Yemeni people have been clear, the future cost to Gulf neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular, may be more than these states have estimated.

Considering social science research on civil wars, this paper evaluates the economic consequences of the conflict in Yemen, for the country itself, as well as for the Gulf region. Further, it offers suggestions on how the Gulf Cooperation Council states can learn from past conflicts and theory in their approach to reconstruction efforts to avoid the conflict trap and violence cycle.

While the immediate costs to the Yemeni people in famine, 9 disease, and destruction have been clear, the future cost to Gulf neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular, may be more than these states have estimated. As the expansive social science research on civil wars demonstrates, the cost of these conflicts tends to multiply, with reverberating effects in the domestic economy and in neighboring states. The value of the academic research on the economic consequences of civil wars is more than affirming the intuitive argument that war is costly, but to demonstrate shared causal factors and common consequences over time and across space. Policymakers should take note, as the Yemeni case is textbook in its demonstration of expected outcomes of civil wars. When considering a postconflict reconstruction effort in Yemen, what might the GCC states learn from the experience and theory on how to avoid the conflict trap and violence cycle? While it is too late to avoid the conflict, there is some good evidence of how to make the effects less severe. The amount of aid is probably equally important to the design, delivery, and capacity to absorb aid.

Over the next decade the Gulf states will likely grow as both consumers of military equipment and disbursers of significant amounts of postconflict aid and institution building within the Middle East and North Africa. The Gulf states are untested in this very difficult field; U.S. experience in the region has demonstrated that state building and reconstruction efforts are complicated. Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular will need to grow their capacity to be able to advise and deliver this kind of support - By Karen E. Young

http://www.agsiw.org/economic-consequences-yemens-civil-war/ and full document: http://www.agsiw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Young_War-at-Any-Price_ONLINE.pdf

Comment: The PDF (link below) starts from a disturbing point: 'civil war' and Yemen being involved in the war for 4 years. Reference is made to the taking of #Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014. The document is GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)-inclined but, if you are interested,this is what Washington's Arab Gulf States Institute has to say

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1383687591684267

My comment: the article stresses Saudi humanitraian aid for Yemen and deals with the GCC as if it would be an assembly of at least semi-democratic states – That's somewhat strange.

25.5.2017 – Middle East Eye (* B K P)
Operation Hudaydah: Yemen’s most wanted port

n the midst of the volatile and complex Yemen civil war awaits the impending military operation to retake the Houthi-controlled Hudaydah port located on the Red Sea coast – a vital entry path for humanitarian aid.

Hudaydah is a lifeline for the Yemeni people who are currently living through a developing famine crisis. Vital cargo deliveries through the port have reduced by more than half, leaving 3.3 million Yemenis, including 2.1 million children, malnourished according to the United Nations (UN).

Strategically positioned with easily accessible routes to the north and south of the country, Hudaydah is also located south of Ras Isa, a floating terminal which exports oil produced from the Marib governorate fields – a location which has attracted US counter-terrorism operations in recent days. The pipeline from Marib to Ras Isa transports 125,000 barrels per day, making Hudaydah of strategic importance.

On 22 May, the UN voiced concerns over any impending attack on the Hudaydah port and the need to keep it “safe.

The United States and the Saudi-led coalition have not seriously attempted to settle the Yemen conflict through political means or address the worsening humanitarian situation.

Saudi Arabia claims that the port is being used by the Houthis to receive arms from Iran, although there is no empirical evidence put forward to substantiate the claim.

Although the coalition is determined to target Hudaydah, there’s no denying that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemeni Presiden Abd rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s loyal army are not capable of maintaining the security of the port. It is for this reason that the UAE has requested the US intervene and broaden its already long-lasting counter-terrorism operation against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen to include Houthi targets.

The Saudi-led coalition’s strategy to recapture Hudaydah and force the Houthis into negotiations will be met with a fierce battle – by Khalil Dewan

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170525-operation-hudaydah-yemens-most-wanted-port/

25.5.2017 – The Soufan Group (* B H K P)

Yemen Edges Closer to Collapse

An outbreak of cholera in Yemen is pushing an already dire humanitarian situation to the brink.

The cholera epidemic coincides with a developing famine and a looming assault by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemen’s most critical humanitarian corridor.

There are signs of growing disunity among political constituencies currently aligned with the coalition fighting to re-install President Hadi, portending greater political instability for Yemen.

U.S. strategy toward Yemen is narrowly focused on military solutions to a political and humanitarian catastrophe.

emen’s humanitarian collapse is compounded by the growing political division within the coalition fighting to reinstate Yemen’s internationally-recognized President, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Currently, neither the U.S. nor the Saudi-led coalition are seriously attempting to address the underlying political roots of the conflict in Yemen, or its resulting humanitarian catastrophe. Rather, the Trump administration’s policy toward Yemen remains focused almost exclusively on counterterrorism operations and military support for the Saudi-led campaign to defeat the Houthis. The recent $110 billion U.S.-Saudi arms deal reached during President Trump’s first trip abroad is a clear reaffirmation of that strategy. Such hi-tech weaponry in the hands of poorly trained Saudi pilots has been used to devastating effect against Yemeni civilians, yet has returned no marginal increase in the Hadi regime’s legitimacy among average Yemenis. Nor has it persuaded either side to meaningfully seek what is likely the only solution with a genuine chance of success—a negotiated settlement based on political compromise. Until the calculations of Yemen’s belligerents and their international backers are revised, al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State will remain the prime beneficiaries of the ongoing violence.

http://www.soufangroup.com/tsg-intelbrief-yemen-edges-closer-to-collapse/

25.5.2017 – Rabla (* A K T)

Killing is as wrong in Manchester as it is in Sanaa, Yemen

Trump's affinity for autocrats, strongmen and bullies is facing resistance. As the world processes the horror of the suicide bombing in Manchester, England, where most of the victims were young girls out for a concert, we should brace ourselves for another wave of similar, innocent casualties, this time in Yemen, the target of relentless, U.S.-supported Saudi Arabian bombardment.

Start with the premise that killing children is wrong, period. It is as wrong in Manchester as it is in Sanaa, Yemen. It is wrong to kill a child as an act of war, whether the killing is done by a U.S. soldier, a remote pilot of a U.S. Predator drone, a Saudi Arabian pilot of a U.S. provided F-35 or, to use the current term, a terrorist.

When a suicide bomber exploded a bomb at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester this week, those killed were almost entirely from among her immense fan base: young girls -- tweens -- and their parents. The newscasts appropriately labelled the attack "barbaric." Jump to the first week of the Trump administration, for example. Then, with expected hubris, Trump and his surrogates touted a "successful" raid in Yemen, despite the death of a Navy SEAL and loss of a helicopter. What went largely unreported, at first, were the 30 civilian casualties of that attack, many of them women and children, including an eight-year-old girl .

"These terrorist attacks are not confined to Europe. They take place every single day in Iraq, in Syria, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and Yemen, Bahrain," Tariq Ali said on the Democracy Now! news hour, reacting to the Manchester bombing. He is a British political commentator, writer, editor of the New Left Review and longtime peace activist.

"We all deplore the loss of lives of innocent people. We do. Everyone does. But we can't have double standards, in which we say that someone killed in Europe, their lives are more valuable than the lives being taken in large parts of the Muslim world. And unless the West understands that these double standards provoke and anger more people, it will carry on."

The media should use their coverage of the victims of the Manchester bombing, with its poignant biographies and life stories of each of the young lives lost, for the coverage of the deaths in Yemen, in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. We need to know the names, we need to hear the stories, of those lost lives as well – by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2017/05/killing-wrong-manchester-it-sanaa-yemen

24.5.2017 – Intelligence Online (unrated A P)

Abu Dhabi set to break with Riyadh over Aden

While Trump visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia tried to obtain some meagre concession from Abu Dhabi on Yemen, where Mohamed bin Zayed is now openly determined to impose his agenda [payment required]

https://www.intelligenceonline.com/grey-areas/2017/05/24/abu-dhabi-set-to-break-with-riyadh-over-aden,108235653-ART

1991 – DTIC.mil (* B)

The Strategic Importance of Bab Al-Mandab Street

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a236804.pdf

Remark: We go back to 1991 and this is a study project on the importance of Bab el Mandab.
35 pages of PDF. If you are interested, it can be an eye-opener.
We thank Kathy Ann for having sent us the document

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1383496235036736

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

Eingebetteter MedieninhaltSiehe / Look at cp1, cp1a

28.5.2017 – Blick (* B H)

«Das Schlimmste ist noch nicht vorbei»

Dominik Stillhart vom Roten Kreuz reiste zwei Wochen durch die hunger- und kriegsgeplagten Länder Somalia und Jemen. Eine derartige Krise habe er noch nie erlebt, sagt er – und ist dennoch optimistisch.

Und in der Stadt Sanaa im Jemen besuchte ich ein Spital, das innerhalb eines Tages 150 neue Cholerafälle behandeln musste. Es war total überfordert vom Ansturm an Menschen mit schlimmem Durchfall. Ein riesiges Chaos, viel Geschrei. Da lagen Menschen zu viert auf Matratzen im Korridor, jeder mit Infusionen im Arm. Sogar draussen im Garten lagen sie.

Am ersten Tag hatte ich zum ersten Mal von einigen Hundert Fällen gehört. Am fünften Tag waren es bereits über 10'000 Fälle. Jetzt spricht man von mehr als 30'000 Fällen.

Warum interessiert sich die Weltöffentlichkeit nicht für diese Krise?
Weil wir übersättigt sind. Es gibt derzeit so viele Länder, die gleichzeitig von schlimmen Kriegen heimgesucht werden. Die meisten von uns verstehen gar nicht, was dort geschieht, weil die Krisen so komplex sind.

Wer ist schuld am Hunger?
Man sollte nicht glauben, es sei allein der Klimawandel. Im Jemen, Südsudan und Nordosten Nigerias herrscht gar keine Dürre. Der Hunger dort ist allein das Resultat langwieriger Konflikte, gepaart mit der Unfähigkeit lokaler, regionaler und globaler Mächte, eine politische Lösung zu finden. Ein Grossteil des Leids im Jemen ist der Tatsache geschuldet, dass in den vergangenen zwei Jahren 160 Spitäler zerstört wurden. Für die Völkerrechtsverletzung sind die Kriegsparteien verantwortlich.

https://www.blick.ch/news/ausland/dominik-stillhart-vom-ikrk-ueber-die-hungerkrise-in-somalia-und-im-jemen-das-schlimmste-ist-noch-nicht-vorbei-id6736508.html

28.5.2017 – Press TV Iran (B H)

Film: Watch how the people of #Yemen are dealing with their difficulties in the holy month of #Ramadan

https://twitter.com/PressTV/status/868855315898433540

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt25.-28.5.2017 – MONA Relief (A H)

Good news. .@monareliefye received tonight 100 baskets of Ramadan food rations from @AishaJumaan to be distributed soon in Sanaa. #Yemen (photos9

https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/868941732574105601

For the 2nd and the 3rd day, @monareliefye continues today delivering Ramadan food aid portions to families in Sanaa (photos, film)

https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/867754359584698369

https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/868106852764196866

https://twitter.com/monareliefye/status/867865434393071616

https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/868168121282154496

27.5.2017 – Yemen Updates (* B H)

Only 10% of infants are breastfed for the 1st 6 months. 37.5% of all women of reproductive age suffering from anemia..

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/868449086265020416

46.5% of all children under 5 in #Yemen are stunted,& wasting levels rise at critical levels with 16.3% of all children under five wasted.

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/868448481010225152

26.5.2017 – Middle East Monitor (* A H)

WHO: Largest medical aid shipment arrives in Yemen

The largest shipment of medical supplies since the beginning of the conflict in March 2015 reached Yemen, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced last night.

In a post on its official Facebook page, the organisation said: “A World Health Organisation-chartered aircraft carrying intravenous fluids and cholera kits has successfully landed at Sana’a airport in Yemen. At 67 tonnes, it constitutes the largest planeload of medical goods WHO has brought into the country since the escalation of the conflict in March 2015.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170526-who-largest-medical-aid-shipment-arrives-in-yemen/ and WHO statement: http://www.emro.who.int/yem/yemen-news/jumbo-jet-lands-in-war-torn-yemen-carrying-67-tons-of-cholera-response-supplies.html

26.5.2017 - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (* B H)

Yemen fighting a “triple threat” of cholera, conflict and starvation

Already dealing with raging conflict and the world's worst hunger crisis, Yemen is now struggling to control a cholera epidemic that is spreading across the country at an unprecedented rate. In the last three weeks, health authorities have reported more than 41,000 suspected cholera cases, one third of whom are children, and 418 associated deaths across 19 of Yemen's 22 governorates.

"The triple-threat of crises that are confronting Yemen are stretching us to our limits," said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's Humanitarian Chief in Yemen. "Today in Yemen, if you do not die of conflict and hunger, you risk being killed by cholera. We have seen the catastrophic consequences when cholera spreads unchecked, and as an international community, we cannot allow this to happen."

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-fighting-triple-threat-cholera-conflict-and-starvation and full photo show https://unocha.exposure.co/yemen-fighting-a-triple-threat-of-cholera-conflict-and-starvation

25.5.2017 – Yemen Updates (A H)

A new initiative: "Food Bank" supported by some institutions and businessmen to halt hunger in #Yemen!

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/867849627541934080

25.5.2017 - US Agency for International Development (A H P)

Yemen - Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #10, Fiscal Year (FY) 2017

US G overnment contributes an additional $77.1 million to support emergency relief operations in Yemen

Humanitarian agencies, including USG partners, provide life-saving assistance to approximately 4.8 million people from January to early May

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-complex-emergency-fact-sheet-10-fiscal-year-fy-2017 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/05.25.17%20-%20USG%20Yemen%20Complex%20Emergency%20Fact%20Sheet%20%2310.pdf

Yemen ‑ Active USG Programs for Yemen Response (Last Updated 05/25/17)

http://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-active-usg-programs-yemen-response-last-updated-052517 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/05.25.17%20-%20USG%20Yemen%20Complex%20Emergency%20Program%20Map.pdf

My comment: US relief for Yemen – what a dubious thing. The US is mainly accountable for the Yemen disaster, and is making billions in arms as profit from this war.

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

Siehe / Look at cp1

28.5.2017 – Yemen Updates (A P)

In #Sanaa, soldiers blocked off the main street in front of the Ministry of the Interior Affairs demanding their salaries

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/868878323056857089 referring to film. https://twitter.com/yepress/status/868854179846082560

28.5.2017 – Gulf News (A P)

Al Houthis ban Taraweeh prayers in Sana’a

Imams forced to sign pledges to ensure they will not organise any lectures or lessons

Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels in Yemen have banned Taraweeh prayers in the Yemeni capital in a move aimed at preventing any incitement against their grip on power, the Yemen 24 newssite reported.

Al Houthis also told mosques that if Taraweeh prayers are performed then they must include a invocation for the group and its fighters.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/al-houthis-ban-taraweeh-prayers-in-sana-a-1.2034450

Remark: Tarawee prayers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarawih

Comment by Haykal Bafana: Every year, it's the same lie. Enough, ya Dubai. Fear God, please.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/868915863503634433

27.5.2017 – Press TV Iran (A P)

Saudi Arabia after splitting Muslim people: Yemen’s Houthi

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement says Saudi Arabia seeks to split the Muslim Ummah — the Muslim people as a whole — and to turn them into indecisive people who can be exploited.

He said Saudi Arabia was the leading regime among the “regional hypocrites, which only seek destruction and sedition to execute American and Zionist plots.”

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/05/27/523345/Yemen-Abdul-Malik-Badreddin-alHouthi-Saudi-Arabia-splitting-Muslim-Ummah and by Fars News: http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960306001070

26.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Yemen Security Brief

Al Houthi movement leadership and former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh may be pursuing different political lines of effort. The spokesman for the al Houthi Ansar Allah party, Mohammed Abdul Salam, denied that any representatives of the al Houthi-Saleh bloc met with UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on May 25. This statement contradicts photos published by the al Houthi-Saleh government’s news outlet showing a May 23 meeting between the UN envoy and two Saleh allies, Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtour and Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf. [3]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-26-2017

26.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A)

Houthis open fire at women and children aboard a car eastern Dhamar city

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91507

26.5.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)

Yemeni Insurgents Arrest Coup Leaders Protesting Unpaid Salaries in Sana’a

Insurgency militias in Yemen captured a number of coup political figures in Sana’a following protests demanding that public sector employees get hold of their due salaries.

Militiamen have attacked demonstration organizers, and have apprehended a pro-Houthi Judge Ahmed Saif Hashed, eye witnesses told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Already suffering grievously under nearly two years of civil war, many thousands of Yemeni state workers now face destitution as their salaries have gone largely unpaid for months.

Eyewitnesses added that coup insurgents had placed protesters at gunpoint, and exercised brute power, after deploying across Tahrir Square in Sana’a where the demonstration took place – by Sa'ed Al-Abyadh

http://english.aawsat.com/saed-alabyadh/news-middle-east/yemeni-insurgents-arrest-coup-leaders-protesting-unpaid-salaries-sanaa

My comment: Of course, this Saudi media „omitts“ that the problem of unpaid salaries is due to Saudi-backed „president“ Hadi's Central Bank policy. - And of course, Saudi anti-Houthi „analysis“ / general propaganda cannot miss here.

25.5.2017 – Yemen Updatws (A P)

#Houthis attacked a demo in Tahrir Square &arrest A.Hashad among others protesting against skyrocketing prices &demanding salaries

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/867708408870338561

25.5.2017 – Bahai (A P)

Zahlreiche Baha’i im Jemen willkürlich verhaftet – Stammesführer zeigen sich solidarisch.

Nach dem jüngsten Aufruf von Behörden in Sana’a/Nordjemen zur Verhaftung jemenitischer Baha’i demonstrierten in der vergangenen Woche Hunderte von Jemeniten gegen diesen willkürlichen Vorgang und verlangten die sofortige Freilassung der bereits inhaftierten Baha’i. Unter den Demonstrierenden waren auch jemenitische Stammesführer und Menschenrechtsaktivisten.

Nach Anordnung dieser Behörden befinden sich derzeit sechs Baha’i in Haft oder in Polizeigewahrsam, unter ihnen auch der Stammesführer Walied Ayyash. Er leidet derzeit unter hohem Fieber, es wird ihm aber ärztliche Behandlung verweigert. Ihre Angehörigen erhalten keine Besuchserlaubnis und Berichten zufolge droht vielen weiteren Baha’i die Verhaftung.

http://iran.bahai.de/2017/05/zahlreiche-bahai-im-jemen-willkuerlich-verhaftet-stammesfuehrer-zeigen-sich-solidarisch/

25.5.2017 – Nachrichtensignal 301 (unrated B P)

Film: Surviving A Houthi-Rebel Bootcamp in Yemen, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYHXceiCjY

25.5.2017 – Nasser Arrabyee (A P)

My message along with millions of Yemenis to Saudi Arabia,Trump and all its supporters

Delivered in huge rally when Trump was NSaudi Arabia (Arabic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZXiP8QjRi8&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my1wj0ijmqw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWwZrWkWp7Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fASWkczCrE&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_XIjS4_jhE&feature=youtu.be

cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government

Siehe / Lok at cp1

27.5.2017 – Middle East Monitor (* A P)

UAE uses US attacks in Yemen to get rid of Muslim Brotherhood

The UAE uses US attacks on Yemen to get rid of the Al-Islah Party, which represents the Muslim Brotherhood in the country, Moheet reported experts as saying.

“There is a clear political function behind the American escalation in Yemen related to the war on terror,” an expert said, according to Moheet.

American attacks on people suspected to have links with Al-Qaeda increased during the Trump administration more than they had been during the Obama administration.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, researcher Yassin Al-Tamimi said: “What is happening today in Yemen is that regional powers use Al-Qaeda and the United States at the same time in order to wage a fake war on terror in a third country, Yemen. These regional powers are represented by Abu Dhabi.”

The researcher continued: “Abu Dhabi took a position against legitimacy in Yemen. It is settling accounts with Yemeni parties which supported the revolution of 11 February 2011, mainly the Al-Islah Party.”

He reiterated that the UAE “covers its operations through carrying out joint operations with the American military,” noting that its “most dangerous plan is dividing Yemen.”

Al-Tamimi pointed out that American operations are taking place in areas controlled by the legitimate government in Yemen.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170527-uae-uses-us-attacks-in-yemen-to-get-rid-of-muslim-brotherhood/

My comment: What is evident: Islah Party is a main backer of „president“ Hadi. - There are many links between Hadi supporters and Al Qaeda.

27.5.2017 – Al Araby (A)

Yemen to send planes to rescue stranded citizens

Yemeni authorities hired planes to transport citizens stranded in several cities and airports across the region, local media reported on Saturday, after the national carrier cancelled dozens of flights without warning.

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Dajer of the Aden-based government led by Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi said he contacted Yemen Airways chairman and stressed the importance of transporting those stranded home.

Last Sunday, Yemen Airways canceled regular flights from Cairo to Sayoun airport in Hadramout, in the east of the country.

Activists on social networking sites launched a campaign against the Yemeni airline, calling for a lawsuit against its board of directors over the delay of the flights.

Campaigners say Yemen Airways has become the world's most expensive airline

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/5/27/yemen-to-send-planes-to-rescue-stranded-citizens

but

28.5.2017 – Yemen Updates / Suhf Net (A P)

Dozens of #Yemenis stranded at Cairo International Airport began a hunger strike on Sunday,after #Yemen gov't failed to return them home!

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/868980610639028224 referring to https://www.suhf.net/yemen/171877

26.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Yemen Security Brief

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghir, Aden Governor Abdul Aziz al Muflahi, and Abyan Governor Abu Bakr Hussein returned to Yemen from Saudi Arabia on May 26. The group attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Aden’s restored electricity plant. The ceremony followed a “March of Candles” protest against power outages in Aden’s Khormaksar district.

Transitional Political Council President Aydarus al Zubaidi traveled to Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Cairo between May 19 and 26 in an effort to garner international support. Council members will also meet with officials from the UAE and the Arab League.[1]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-26-2017

26.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A)
Tribal gunmen seize a truck carrying “Yemeni banknotes”

Tribal gunmen seized a truck carrying banknotes of 5,000 riyals category belonging to the Central Bank of Yemen in the al Rayyan desert east of al Jawf province in northeastern Yemen, a tribal source said.

The tribal source told Almasdaronline that the truck belongs to the Houthi group and former president Saleh's party, and was on the way to the areas under their control through the eastern desert of al Jawf.

He added that security patrols of the tribal militants in the areas under the control of the pro-government forces were the one who pursued and stopped the truck, and have identified the driver.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91509

25.5.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)

YJS demands to protect journalists in Aden

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) has demanded to protect journalists in Aden, pointing out that the journalist Hanan Nasser Mohammed was threatened with murder and accused of infidelity.

According to YJS, Hanan was threatened because she followed up the case of killing an activist in Aden Amjad Abdul-Rahman.

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-7317

My comment: The „liberated“ part of Yemen (according to propaganda) under „president“ Hadi's rule.

25.5.2017 – Adengad (A P)

Coalition rejected a request to Yemen to run two flights to Aden to transport hundreds of Yemenis before Ramadan

A request for the leadership of the Arab coalition forces, specifically Saudi Arabia, to fly two flights from Cairo airport to Aden to transport hundreds of Yemenis stranded in Egypt has been rejected, a Yemeni aviation source said.

The source said in a statement to the newspaper Aden al-Ghad that the Yemeni Air Department has made the request because of the increasing number of families who want to leave Cairo and dozens of others who want to return to Yemen before Ramadan.

The source said that the request was rejected, which caused the outbreak of protests two days ago in front of the headquarters of the Yemeni airline in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Yemeni residents in Egypt complained that they could not survive because their money ran out.

http://adengad.net/news/261113/ and in translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ar&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fadengad.net%2Fnews%2F261113%2F&edit-text=

My comment: Now the „Coalition“ even blocks Aden airport, due to the Saudi-UAE strife on Yemen.

25.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A P)

Prime Minister and most ministers to return to Aden city Thursday- government source

The source told Almasdaronline that the government will return in order to stand on several issues rising in Aden, topped by the power outage and the state of division and political polarization, which followed recent developments.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91496

My comment: That is a real Riyadh-Aden hopping, there and back and there and back. Until in Riyadh again, soon.

25.5.2017 – Fox Nomad (A P)

Is It Still Possible To Visit Socotra Island?

You really have to be persistent, determined, and adventurous to even attempt a trip to Socotra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are substantial costs, not to mention risks, right now in doing so. Travel to Socotra is likely to be practically infeasible as the situation in mainland Yemen continues to deteriorate with more than 70% of the population – most of these peopleneeding humanitarian assistance. - by Anil Polat

https://foxnomad.com/2017/05/25/still-possible-visit-socotra-island/

Comment: While we thank Anil Polat for covering tourism in #Socotra, one question should arise: Doesnt anyone find it strange that to visit the island you have to pass by UAE tour operators who, eventually, cancel all arrangements?

https://www.facebook.com/SaveSocotra/posts/1397401073677739

24.5.2017 – Saleh Khalid Saleh (A P)

This is #Aden nowadays. people burning tiers protesting long hours blackout. (photo)

https://twitter.com/SalehAlBatati1/status/867568553590784000

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

28.5.2017 – Sputnik News (A H P)

UN Ignores War-Torn Yemen's Pleas for Aid, State Employees 'Have Nothing to Eat'

In an interview with Sputnik, Yemen's Deputy Information Minister Hashim Sharafaddin made a point of expressing his disappointment with the United Nations, which has repeatedly ignored the country's requests for humanitarian assistance amid starvation and devastating Saudi bombardments.

Yemeni Deputy Information Minister Hashim Sharafaddin told Sputnik that the current negotiations between the UN Secretary-General's special representative for Yemen Ismail Sheikh uld Ahmed and the country's officials were aimed at finding a solution to the Yemeni conflict and clinching a truce before the start of Ramadan, which began on May 26.

First and foremost, it is necessary to resolve the pressing issues which are riding roughshod over ordinary Yemenis, according to Sharafaddin.

He specifically underscored the need to pay salaries to employees and open an international airport in Sanaa as soon as possible.

"The crisis with wages has dragged on. During the transfer of the Central Bank of Yemen from Sanaa to Aden, the UN assured the Yemenis of timely payments, but no concrete actions have been taken yet," Sharafaddin said.

"The UN does not extend a helping hand to [the Yemeni people] despite the blockade imposed on the country because of the war that is being waged by the enemy coalition. State employees have not received money for nine months, they simply have nothing to eat," he added.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201705281054057819-yemen-crisis-un-assistance-airport-sanaa/

Remark: Sanaa government minister.

26.5.2017 - 22 International and Yemeni relief organisations (* A H P)

UN Security Council must act to end man-made humanitarian crisis in Yemen

We the undersigned organisations call upon UN Security Council members to take action to bring about an immediate ceasefire in Yemen, end the humanitarian crisis and support the UN Special Envoy's efforts towards an inclusive political solution to the conflict.

The Security Council can and must do more to protect civilians from the horrors of cholera, hunger and indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the conflict. The scale and speed of the multiple crises demand that the Security Council breaks its year-long inaction on Yemen. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is now the largest in the world, with more than 18 million people in need of assistance and 7 million already at risk of famine. These figures come on top of over 50,000 casualties due to armed conflict.

The escalating cholera outbreak is a public health emergency that brings a new sense of urgency to an already acute situation. There are already over 40,000 suspected cholera cases across 19 of Yemen's 22 governorates, over 400 deaths, and the World Health Organisation predicts that as many as 300,000 people across Yemen could be infected within six months.

Yemen's crisis is man-made. It is a direct result of the armed conflict and cannot be solved with aid alone. It requires a political solution. It also requires that countries, including members of the Security Council, who are fuelling the conflict by supplying arms that are at risk of being used in the conflict cease doing so immediately.

There are concrete actions the Security Council can help to initiate that will immediately and positively impact the lives of Yemenis.

When the Security Council meets on 30 May to be briefed on Yemen, we call on the United Kingdom with the support of all Security Council members to make a clear and unequivocal commitment to take the following actions:

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/un-security-council-must-act-end-man-made-humanitarian-crisis-yemen

25.5.2017 – Reuters (A P)

U.N. wants investigation into attack on Yemen envoy's convoy

The United Nations urged authorities in Houthi-controlled Sanaa on Thursday to investigate a "grave attack" on the convoy of its envoy to Yemen during his visit to the capital.

U.N. special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed was in Sanaa for three days of talks aimed at preventing military action at the strategic port of Hodeidah, the entry point for 70 percent of Yemen's food supplies as well as humanitarian aid.

A U.N. statement said that Ahmed's convoy came under attack while traveling from the airport in Sanaa to the United Nations compound. The Houthi-run Saba news agency has denied any attack.

The U.N. statement gave no details, but local officials said shots were fired toward the convoy by unknown assailants.

The General People’s Congress, the party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is allied with the Iranian-aligned Houthis, condemned the attack and also called for an investigation.

However, the Houthi-run Saba news agency has denied any attack on the convoy and said gunshots were fired into the air by security forces assigned to guard the envoy's mission to disperse demonstrators trying to block his path.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-idUSKBN18L18I and by Critical Threats: https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-25-2017

cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran

28.5.2017 – DPA (A P)

Irans Oberhaupt nennt Monarchen Saudi-Arabiens „Idioten“

Irans oberster Führer hat die Monarchen in Saudi-Arabien als „Idioten“ und „Milchkühe für die Amerikaner“ bezeichnet. „Diese Idioten glauben, dass sie mit Geld die Freundschaft der Gegner des Islams gewinnen können“, sagte Ajatollah Ali Chamenei am Samstag laut Nachrichtenagentur Fars. Er bezog sich damit auf die Waffenbestellungen der Saudis bei US-Firmen in dreistelliger Milliardenhöhe, die während des Besuchs Trumps in Riad am vergangenen Wochenende besiegelt wurden.

Die saudischen Führer sind laut Chamenei „ein unfähiger und wertloser Haufen“, der das Schicksal einiger Muslime in der Hand habe. Diese Politik werde jedoch letztendlich zum Kollaps des Regimes dort führen, sagte Chamenei, der laut iranischer Verfassung das letzte Wort in allen strategischen Belangen hat.

https://www.merkur.de/politik/irans-oberhaupt-nennt-monarchen-saudi-arabiens-idioten-zr-8354942.html

27.5.2017 – Reuters (A P)

Iran's Khamenei says Saudis will fall, Rouhani calls for better ties

ran's hardline Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday Saudi Arabia's rulers faced "certain downfall" for aligning themselves with the United States, hours after the country's pragmatist president called for improved ties with Gulf states.

"They (Saudi leaders) act cordially towards the enemies of Islam while having the opposite behavior towards the Muslim people of Bahrain and Yemen," Khamenei told a religious gathering, according to his Twitter account.

"They will face certain downfall," he told a Koran reading event marking the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who has significantly less power than the supreme leader, earlier called for improved relations with Gulf Arab states during a telephone call with the emir of Qatar, which has come under fire from its Gulf neighbors over its relationship with Tehran.

"We want the rule of moderation and rationality in the relations between countries and we believe that a political solution should be a priority," the state news agency IRNA quoted Rouhani as telling Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

"The countries of the region need more cooperation and consultations to resolve the crisis in the region and we are ready to cooperate in this field," Rouhani told Sheikh Tamim, IRNA added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-iran-qatar-idUSKBN18N0RN

27.5.2017 – Deutsche Welle (A P)

Iran's Supreme Leader calls the Saudi leaders 'idiots'

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Saudi Arabia's rulers they face "certain downfall" for their close ties and the recent arms deal with the US. He said the kingdom's leaders were "an inept and worthless bunch."

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized the $110 billion weapons deal announced last week between the US and Saudi Arabia, describing how the Saudi leaders were "idiots" and "milk cows for the Americans."

He was cited by the Fars news agency as calling the Saudi royal family "an inept and worthless bunch" that trades their wealth with "pagans and enemies."

http://www.dw.com/en/irans-supreme-leader-calls-the-saudi-leaders-idiots/a-39013367

and in contrast:

27.5.2017 – AP (* A P)

Rohani Tells Qatar: Iran Is Ready for Peace Talks With Arab Nations
Iran's newly reelected president tells Qatari ruler Muslim world should take steps 'toward peace and brotherhood'

Iran's President Hassan Rohani has told the Qatari Emir that Tehran is ready for talks with Arab nations to reach a "real agreement toward peace and brotherhood."
Rohani's website quoted him as saying in a phone conversation with Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, that the Muslim world is beset by divisions and should take steps "toward peace and brotherhood."
"In this direction we are ready for talks aimed at reaching a real agreement," Rohani was quoted as saying.
The report added that the Qatari Emir said in response that talks between Iran and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf should continue.

http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/1.792229

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

Siehe / Look at cp1

29.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (A)

Film. Overcrowding at Grand Mosque in #Makkah tonight signals potential deadly stampede, again

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868970148207763457

29.5.2017 – Gulf News (A E P)

Saudi Arabia to impose 100% tobacco tax

Special tax on tobacco and sugary drinks expected to raise up to 10 billion riyals a year

http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/saudi-arabia-to-impose-100-tobacco-tax-1.2034683

28.5.2017 – MbKS15 (A P)

For the first time, @Saudi_Airlines sends 30 #Saudi females (with bachelor's degrees) abroad to flying schools for pilot training

https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/868909623910305794

Comments below.

I am wondering if you'll ask them for male guardian permission every time before they take off?

Cannot drive cars though right?

28.5.2017 – CNN (* B P)

Film: For 5 decades, Saudi Arabia has "spread a narrow, puritanical and intolerant version of Islam," says @FareedZakaria

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/868832637137416192

28.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (A E P)

#Saudi Monarchy says it finished 20% of planning of its first nuclear reactor

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868671900620402688 referring to http://www.alhayat.com/m/story/22082563#sthash.3BqqKclm.dpbs

27.5.2017 – Sonia Mota (* B P T)

Who the hell do you think you're fooling, @realDonaldTrump? Everyone knows #SaudiArabia export/fund Wahhabi extremism all over the globe!! (image)

https://twitter.com/SoniaKatiMota/status/868486472579641349

27.5.2017 – The Independent (* A P)

Saudi Arabia to behead disabled man 'for taking part in protests' after 'forced confession'

Campaigners believe the country's authorities may be emboldened after Donald Trump failed to bring up human rights on recent visit

A court in Saudi Arabia has upheld a death sentence for a disabled man who was arrested after he attended a protest, campaigners have said.

Munir al-Adam, 23, was beaten so badly he lost hearing in one ear during demonstrations in the Shia dominated east of the country in 2012.

Human rights campaigners have slammed the decision, calling it “shocking” and demanding the White House intervenes.

Mr Adam was sentenced to death in a secretive trial in the country’s Specialised Criminal Court last year. Now, an appellate court has decided the sentence should be carried out, despite international criticism.

Mr Adam only has the opportunity to appeal the decision once more before King Salman signs his death warrant – by Will Worley

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-behead-disabled-man-munir-adam-protests-forced-confession-torture-death-sentence-court-a7758041.html

27.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (A P)

Fam. of #Saudi G Mufti -founder of Wahhabism- disowns #Qatari ruling family which hails from same tribe

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868620979966291968 referring to https://twitter.com/alarabiya_brk/status/868610706463182849

28.5.2017 – BBC (* B P)

Travelling Without Male Consent

Audio: We unpick the case of Dina Ali, the 24-year-old Saudi national whose story triggered a viral hashtag challenging Saudi Arabia’s 'guardianship' rules, which give male guardians control over women. Where is Dina now? And why was the hashtag she inspired so significant?

Also, they may be separated by thousands of miles but this week Manchester in England and Marawi in the Philippines had something in common – deadly attacks and an outpouring of goodwill messages from the online community. We examine the social media reactions following deadly attacks.

Presenter: Megha Mohan, Producer: Kayleen Devlin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p053bmvc

27.5.2017 – Human Rights Watch (* A P)

Saudi Arabia: Counterterrorism Apparatus Targets Rights Activists

UN Envoy Criticizes Abuses Following Visit

A United Nations official who recently visited Saudi Arabia has criticized the country’s use of its terrorism tribunal and counterterrorism law to unjustly prosecute human rights defenders, writers, and peaceful critics, Human Rights Watch said today. Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, issued his statement on May 4, 2017, following a visit to the country from April 30 to May 4.

Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism law and a series of related decrees are used to criminalize a wide range of acts as “terrorism” including intending to “insult the reputation of the state,” “harm public order,” or “calling for atheist thought.”

Emmerson said that Saudi authorities denied him access to people jailed under the counterterrorism law and expressed concern regarding Saudi Arabia’s “unacceptably broad definition of terrorism.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/26/saudi-arabia-counterterrorism-apparatus-targets-rights-activists

26.5.2017 – BBC (* B P T)

Inside Saudi Arabia's rehab centre for jihadists

The Saudi authorities are keen to show the world this rehab centre for jihadists, known officially as the Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care.

Founded in 2004, following a series of devastating al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia, it is intended to be a halfway house between prison and open society.

Most of its inmates are Saudis, convicted under anti-terrorist laws. It prepares ex-convicts for life on the outside and tries to purge them of any violent ideas.

So does it work? Mostly.

There is certainly no other such rehab centre anywhere in the world that is attempting this kind of psychological detoxification on such a large scale.

More than 3,300 inmates have "graduated" from the centre since 2005, according to the staff, including 123 who have been in Guantanamo Bay. The success rate, they said, is 80% with the remaining 20% returning to violence. (A similar scheme I visited in Yemen in 2003 had a significantly lower success rate).

Inmates spend a minimum of three months at the centre before being assessed to see if they ready for release, Their overall programme is divided into three parts: - By Frank Gardner

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40061550

My comment: This facility has been described like a luxury resort. - „psychological detoxification“: Wahabism certainly will not be driven out from anyone's head in Saudi Arabia.

Comment: BBC refers to #Yemen's aggression as follows: 'in the grip of war'. Not a mention to the fact that the very same Saudi Arabia is head of the Coalition bombing, strangling Yemen.
Without any mention to the fact that other media agencies have, in the past, ridiculed the 'Oasis of Wisdom' exposing the harsh reality it does not 'cure' anyone and is just a PR exercise to embellish the motherland of all jihaddism funding.
BBC, fundamentally, joined a media trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is the result.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1385010834885276

Comments by Ali AlAhmed: This @Bbcnews report is #FakeNews, it doesn't how this terrorist catch & release center graduates suicide bombers

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868994834119499778

All the suicide bombers against Shia Mosques in Qatif, Dammam & Najran graduated from this cente

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868995240648114176

26.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (A H P)

Film: #Saudi women searching for the $400 billion #Riyadh 2 pay 4 US weapons purchase

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868083235275845632

25.5.2017 – Middle East Monitor (* A P)

UAE writer calls for new state to be carved out of Saudi Arabia

A well-known writer from the UAE has called upon the international community to create a new country for Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi carved out of the Saudi Arabian desert, Rassd.com reported yesterday. Khalid Al-Qasimi, who describes himself as a member of the ruling family of Sharjah, made his comment on Twitter.

Al-Qasimi’s tweet aroused the anger of Saudis on Twitter, who called it “flagrant” interference in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, they accused him of calling for the implementation of the plans of the Houthi rebels in Yemen and their sponsor Iran, who they accuse of wanting to destroy the whole region by dividing Saudi Arabia, which is “defending the whole Islamic world”.

The UAE writer is known for his strong opposition to Saudi Arabia.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170525-uae-writer-calls-for-new-state-to-be-carved-out-of-saudi-arabia/

My comment; LOL.

24.5.2017 – United Nations Human Rights (* A P)

Saudi Arabia’s use of force and demolitions in the Al-Masora neighborhood violates human rights

The United Nations experts on cultural rights, adequate housing and extreme poverty today called on the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to immediately halt the on-going demolition of a 400-year-old walled neighborhood in Awamia.

“Despite our attempt to raise concerns and seek explanation from the Government about the planned destruction, bulldozers and demolition vehicles, assisted by armed military forces, have reportedly started on 10 May to destroy buildings and homes in the walled historic neighborhood and in other areas of Awamia, causing injury, deaths and material losses to the civilians residents,” the group of UN experts said.

“Historic buildings have been irremediably burned down and damaged by the use of various weapons by the military, forcing residents out of their homes and of the neighborhood, fleeing for their lives,” noted the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune.

“These destructions erase the traces of this historic and lived cultural heritage and are clear violations of Saudi Arabia’s obligations under international human rights law,” she stressed.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, also warned that what is occurring in Al-Masora constitutes a forced eviction under international human rights law. “Residents have been displaced. Many have been compelled to relocate to other cities and villages, some are living with relatives and many have lost their homes, their personal possessions and also their source of livelihood,” she said.

“Public and private institutions, such as schools, shops and health centers are paralyzed and the whole neighborhood seems to be under siege,” noted the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, who also raised concerns about reported additional power cuts since 18 May and the suspension of many services in large areas of the city.

The three human rights experts have been monitoring the situation since January 2017, when electricity cuts and other methods were used to pressure people out of the neighborhood without adequate resettlement and housing alternatives or compensations plans for their loss.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21657&LangID=E and http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21482&LangID=E (wrong date)

and

24.5.2017 – Press TV Iran (* A P)

UN experts slam Riyadh for erasing 'cultural heritage' in Shia town

United Nations experts have slammed the regime in Riyadh over razing an old part of a Shia Muslim-majority town in eastern Saudi Arabia, saying the move has erased cultural heritage and violated human rights.

Karima Bennoune, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, said on Wednesday that Saudi authorities had moved ahead with razing old Awamiyah, known as al-Musawara, despite repeated calls by the United Nations to halt the demolition.

According to a statement issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bennoune accused Saudi security forces of "irreparably burning down" historic buildings and forcing residents to flee their homes.

"These destructions erase the traces of this historic and lived cultural heritage and are clear violations of Saudi Arabia’s obligations under international human rights law," the UN official said.

Some buildings in the area are more than 400 years old.

Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, also warned that the move in the Shia-populated region "constitutes a forced eviction under international human rights law."

On May 10, at least two people were killed when Saudi regime forces opened fire on local residents who were trying to block bulldozers from razing al-Musawara.

Security forces equipped with heavy weapons have been deployed in Eastern Province's Awamiyah since May 10, following fierce clashes between the regime forces and locals protesting against the destruction.

Photos and videos have been circulated on the net of bulldozers escorted by heavily armored military vehicles heading toward the demolition site.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/05/24/523077/UN-Saudi-Arabia-Shia-cultural-heritage = http://newnewss.net/?p=5732

More reports of the Awamiyah siege on social media:

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/868905239021322241

https://twitter.com/AngryQatifi/status/868414123213770752

https://twitter.com/AngryQatifi/status/868414664983666688

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/868378590970302464

https://twitter.com/BinMaymun/status/868428352054538241

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/868371859854811136

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867741793894400000

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867735980068962304

https://twitter.com/AngryQatifi/status/867952454838530050

cp9 USA

Siehe / Look at cp1

28.5.2017 – 21th Century Wire (* A B P T)

TRUMP-SALMAN ALLIANCE – ALL EYES ON YEMEN

Associate editor at 21st Century Wire, Vanessa Beeley and Director of Shafaqna, Catherine Shakdam, are interviewed by Andrew Korybko of Sputnik after Trump’s recent travels to Saudi Arabia.

As Andrew Korybko says:

“The recently rejuvenated military alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia could have enormous – and immediate – implications for the War on Yemen.

The peninsular and impoverished country has been in a state of total warfare ever since the Saudis began a brutal campaign against them in spring 2015. The stated objective has always been to restore deposed former president Hadi to power, who fled to the Wahhabi Kingdom after the Houthi national liberation movement took control of the country, though the implicit motivation behind the war is commonly recognized by most analysts as being a proxy conflict to counter speculated Iranian influence. The Western narrative is that the Houthis are nothing more than a stand-in for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps because of their shared Shia faith, though that assertion has been clearly debunked by the fact that the group enjoys broad cross-sectarian support all throughout Yemen.

Nevertheless, it’s geopolitically convenient for the US to scare its Saudi ally with the boogeyman threat of “Iranian encirclement”, which is what prompted the Kingdom’s young Defense Minister Mohamed Bin Salman to initiate the war in the first place.

Considering the unlikelihood that the “Arab NATO” will be used against Iran directly, at least at this early stage of its formation, it’s pertinent then to contemplate whether it’ll be unleashed against Iran’s perceived interest in the region, Yemen, in exacerbating the war in that country, though with the calamitous consequences of worsening the humanitarian crisis there and creating new opportunities for Daesh and Al Qaeda to expand their gains.”

Vanessa Beeley recently detailed the chronology of the genesis of Al Qaeda Arab Peninsula in a Facebook post:

http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/05/28/trump-salman-alliance-all-eyes-on-yemen/

28.5.2017 – Sydney Morning Herald (* A P)

US President Donald Trump's statement on Saudi Arabia not a surprise

For a moment I was perplexed when I heard that US President Donald Trump had told Saudi King Salman that the United States and Saudi Arabia shared the same values.

Then it dawned on me: both support capital punishment, although the Saudis prefer head chopping and the Americans offer a choice of lethal injection or the electric chair; the Saudis are misogynist and Donald Trump likes to "pussy-grab" women; the Saudis don't have a democracy and Donald Trump is in power with the support of only one quarter of the US electorate; and the Saudis and Trump oppose immigration but want poor people to employ, exploit and if necessary execute.

With a little more thought I came up with other things in common – by Paul Malone

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/us-president-donald-trumps-statement-on-saudi-arabia-not-a-surprise-20170526-gwdwjd.html

27.5.2017 – Washington Post (* A P)

Amid a chillier welcome in Europe, Trump keeps pining for Saudi Arabia

As more recent stops on his nine-day overseas journey yielded less love, President Trump continued to bask in the glow from his earlier visit to Saudi Arabia — the site of what he has called his “historic” and “unprecedented” meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders.

“People have said there has really never been anything even close in history,” Trump said days later on the West Bank. In Israel, he talked up the Saudi stop as a harbinger of victory over terrorism and of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In an otherwise grating speech Thursday in Brussels — where he chastised NATO leaders for skimping on defense spending — Trump recalled his “historic” Riyadh meeting and spoke movingly of Saudi King Salman as “a wise man.”

But how history ultimately remembers the Saudi event may depend on the extent to which deals struck and promises made are kept.

Although more than 40 leaders of Muslim-majority countries attended a Sunday meeting with Trump, the focus in Riyadh was on the Persian Gulf’s importance as a U.S. partner and bulwark against terrorism during two days of bilateral negotiations with Saudi Arabia and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.

A GCC communique signed with the United States on Sunday was similar to accords in recent years signed by the Obama administration, one at a U.S.-GCC summit at Camp David in 2015 and another a year later in Riyadh

The Trump administration has also given full support to Saudi insistence that the rebellion in neighboring Yemen is an Iranian operation.

Senior administration officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the communique also includes a new commitment by the Gulf states to charge and prosecute individuals in their countries who finance terrorists, although the document itself does not specify that.

Asked about the discrepancy, one senior official later said in an email that the document was “an umbrella statement that allowed flexibility to hold nations accountable for the financing [from] any institutions or individuals from within who fund terrorist groups in any way.”

In exchange, Trump abandoned what the Arabs considered Obama’s hectoring over human rights and democracy and perceived tilt toward Iran. Speaking to the group, Trump denounced Tehran as the cause of virtually all the region’s ills - By Karen DeYoung

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/amid-a-chillier-welcome-in-europe-trump-keeps-pining-for-saudi-arabia/2017/05/26/2e7d1b22-4246-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html

My comment: „But how history ultimately remembers the Saudi event may depend on the extent to which deals struck and promises made are kept“: definitely not. There will be quite other things on which the remembrance will depend. And remembrance will be disastrous. Trump dancing to the Saudis tune and drawing the US and the whole region even more into a quagmire – that's what will stay in mind.

26.5.2017 – Think Progress (* A P)

Trump’s disturbing Ramadan message to Muslims

This is not the kind of holiday greeting anyone should receive.

In a statement commemorating the start of Ramadan — the holy month of fasting that begins Friday evening — President Donald Trump wished Muslims a “joyful” holiday before repeatedly referencing terrorism, violence, and national security.

Trump said in a statement.

“I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh: America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it,” Trump added. “During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace.”

The president may think it’s necessary to mention “terrorist” and “terrorism” at least three times in his statement, but it’s insulting for Muslims who are already frequently expected to answer for the crimes they did not commit.

It’s also an insult to Muslims to presume they aren’t working hard to counter extremism – by Esther Yu Hsi Lee

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-ramadan-statement-terrorism-e124145411d9

Comment by Haykal Bafana: This Trump guy must be on crack. I'm fairly certain.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/868247592160960516

26.5.2017 – Angry Bear (* C A P)

Some Saudi-US History

Given Donald Trump’s new commitment to support military adventurism by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and more generally against Iran, it might be worth reconsidering how this alliance developed.

Which brings us to the current situation. I personally think that the current Saudi leadership has gone off the rails in their anti-Iran attitudes. The differences are both sectarian and ethnic, Sunni versus Shi’i Islam and Semitic Arabs versus Indo-European Iranians, with this manifesting itself in a regional power struggle. But this is a relatively recent conflict, only getting going since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and only getting really hot with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by the US under George W. Bush. It was the Saudis who convinced Bush’s dad not to go to Baghdad to overthrow Saddam in the 1991 Gulf War, arguing that he kept a balance of power as a Sunni Arab leader against Iran. And they argued with Bush, Jr. not to go in for the same reason, although they would support the US effort modestly once it happened, even though it aggravated Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda against the Saudi monarchy for supporting the US so openly (even though the US had supported the decision by then Saudi intel chief, Turki bin Faisal, to send bin Laden to Pakistan to aid in the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan). But the replacement of a Sunni-led regime in Iraq by a Shi’i led one supported by Iran has upset the Saudis greatly. They also do not like Iranian support of Assad in Syria, who appears to have won his war against largely Sunni rebels, many of them supported by KSA, and now the Saudis are bogged down in a war in Yemen against local Zaydi Shi’a, whom they claim (not with full credibility) are being supported by Iran. So they, and the Israelis, want the US to join them in an anti-Iran crusade.

I think we are at a dangerous moment here. - by Barkley Rosser

http://angrybearblog.com/2017/05/some-saudi-us-history.html

26.5.2017 – Junge Welt (* A P)

Kriegserklärung: Trump in Riad, Jerusalem und Brüssel

Ein US-Präsident, der in Saudi-Arabien eine neue Koalition gegen den Terror proklamiert, übertrifft die blutigen Grotesken seiner Amtsvorgänger. Höchste Zeit für den Friedensnobelpreis. Denn Donald Trumps Reise zu denen, die gerade die Bevölkerung des Jemen massakrieren, war mehr als ein symbolischer Akt. Es ging um eine Kriegserklärung an den Iran. Das bekräftigte Trump in Riad und in Jerusalem – zur Genugtuung der saudischen Dschihaddiktatur wie der rechtsextremen Regierung Israels. Die hat kein Problem mit dem Auffüllen des saudiarabischen Waffenarsenals durch die USA. Das war schon in der Amtszeit des Friedensnobelpreisträgers Barack Obama nicht anders. Er lieferte mehr Kriegsgut an die angeblichen Israel-Feinde als jetzt vereinbart wurde.

Die Saudis stellten nach offizieller Version alle Attentäter des 11. September 2001. Der »Islamische Staat« (IS) und andere ihrem Charakter nach faschistische Banden haben im Königreich, das sich auf eine finstere Version des politischen Islam stützt, ihre Wurzeln und ihre Hauptsponsoren. Das Bündnis zwischen Golf-Milliardären und dem mörderischen Mob, der miss­liebige Länder der Region verheert, wurde durch Trump gestärkt. Kein Komiker kann darauf kommen, zugleich in Riad ein »Zentrum für die Bekämpfung extremistischen Denkens« zu gründen.

Das Spiel soll also weitergehen: Die USA gründen gemeinsam mit den reaktionärsten Kräften Vorderasiens seit fast 40 Jahren eine militärisch agierende Bande nach der anderen. Diese berufen sich letztlich auf die in Saudi-Arabien herrschende und von dort in die Welt exportierte Ideologie – von Arnold Schölzel

https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/311271.kriegserklärung.html

27.5.2017 – Salon (* A P)

Washington Post didn’t disclose that writer who penned positive piece about Trump’s Saudi trip is paid by Saudi government

Why does the Post embarrass itself by publishing lobbyist Ed Rogers?

The Washington Post allowed contributor Ed Rogers to praise Donald Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia without disclosing that he’s a lobbyist for the Saudi Royal Court. The Post has repeatedly allowed Rogers to promote his lobbying clients’ interests without disclosure.

Rogers is the chairman of the BGR Group, a leading Washington, D.C., lobbying group. BGR is part of a vast network of American lobbying and public relations firms that work for the Saudi government. The Post itself has reported on Rogers’ role in promoting Saudi interests. An April 2016 article stated that Rogers “did not immediately return a request for comment” about his lobbying work for the Saudi government and that “Rogers is a contributor to the Washington Post’s PostPartisan blog.”

Rogers and BGR signed an agreement letter with the Saudi Royal Court on August 24, 2015, to “provide public relations and media management services for The Center [for Studies and Media Affairs at The Saudi Royal Court], which includes both traditional and social media forums.” The contract is worth $500,000 per year.

Rogers used his Washington Post space to write a May 16 piece praising Trump’s then-upcoming overseas trip as a “good idea” and an opportunity to “begin a reset even if relief is only temporary.” He added that “the American public responds positively to seeing their president meeting with world leaders, reassuring them of our leadership abroad, and coming to agreements on matters of global importance. Trump’s meetings in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican are opportune settings for this administration to make a bold statement to the world that the United States is stronger and more committed than ever to leading.”

The Post column did not disclose that the Saudi government has paid Rogers and his company – by ERIC HANANOKI

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/27/wash-post-didnt-disclose-that-writer-who-penned-positive-piece-about-trumps-saudi-trip-is-paid-by-saudi-government_partner/

26.5.2017 – Rare (* A P)

Rep. Justin Amash leads a bipartisan group who want to block the Saudi arms deal

On Thurday, Amash and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) led a bipartisan group of House members including Republicans Walter Jones (NC) and Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Democrats Barbara Lee (Cali.) and Jim McGovern (Mass.) to introduce a joint resolution of disapproval of President Trump’s planned arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human rights records and has supported many of the extremists terrorizing the people of the Middle East and the world,” said Amash in a press release. “These arms sales extend a reckless policy from the Obama administration and prior administrations, and they come at a time when the Saudi government is escalating a gruesome war in Yemen.”

Primary co-sponsor Pocan echoed Amash, “President Trump’s proposed $110-billion weapons sale sends the wrong message to Saudi Arabia. In addition to regularly dropping U.S. bombs on Yemeni civilians, Saudi Arabia appears to have every intention of using the U.S. weapons from this sale to enforce a blockade on Yemen that prevents food and medicine from reaching millions of people on the brink of starvation.”

http://rare.us/rare-politics/issues/foreign-policy/rep-justin-amash-leads-a-bipartisan-group-who-want-to-block-the-saudi-arms-deal/

26.5.2017 – Zeit Online (A P)

US-Senatoren wollen Waffendeal mit Saudi-Arabien stoppen

Ein Teil des von Trump geschlossenen Rüstungsdeals mit Saudi-Arabien soll verhindert werden. Mehrere Senatoren befürchten, dass die Waffen im Jemen eingesetzt werden.

http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-05/donald-trump-us-senatoren-ruestungsdeal-saudi-arabien-waffenexport-stoppen

25.5.2017 – The Hill (* A P)

Senate gears up for fight on Trump's $110B Saudi Arabia arms sale

The Senate is heading toward a fight over President Trump's $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced a joint resolution of disapproval on Thursday on a small part of the deal that was signed by Trump during his recent visit to Riyadh.

The move tees up a vote in early June after the Senate returns from a weeklong Memorial Day recess.

The bipartisan trio has to wait 10 calendar days before they can bring their measure up on the Senate floor using a frequently overlooked provision of the Arms Export Control Act.

A similar push from the three senators and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was overwhelmingly rejected last year.

While Murphy couldn't guarantee that their new bill would pass, he told reporters on Thursday that they would have "significantly more support“ - by Jordain Carney

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/335182-senate-gears-up-for-fight-on-trumps-saudi-arabia-arms-sale and by CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/25/politics/saudi-weapons-sale-congress-senators-vote/index.html and the senators' resolution: https://www.paul.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ResolutionofDisapproval.pdf

26.5.2017 – Senator al Franken (A P)

Our nation should not turn a blind eye to the indiscriminate killing of children, women, and men in Yemen. Thousands of civilians have been unjustly killed or wounded by Saudi-led forces in the Yemeni civil war, but despite this tragedy, the U.S. continues to sell billions of dollars of weaponry to the Saudis. Not only is this wrong, but it also undercuts American national security interests. That’s why I’ve introduced a bipartisan resolution with my colleagues Senator Rand Paul and Senator Chris Murphy to force the Senate to vote on a resolution blocking a portion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia because we need to show that the United States won’t stand for what the Saudis are doing to innocent people.

https://www.facebook.com/senatoralfranken/posts/1372259249526620

25.5.2017 – New York Times (* B P)

Will President Trump Help Save Yemen?

President Trump could have used his trip to Saudi Arabia this week to spotlight the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen and push for a political solution to the conflict. Instead, he basked in the adulation of King Salman and his court, uncritically embraced the country’s foreign and domestic policies, and then sold the Saudis $110 billion in arms.
Mr. Trump made perfunctory references to Yemen on his trip, but mostly to praise the Saudi war effort and condemn Iran for supporting militant groups. He could be using the leverage he has with his new Saudi friends to push for a resolution to the fighting. After all, Saudi Arabia and its gulf allies depend heavily on Washington for aircraft, munitions, training and in-flight refueling.

Mr. Trump’s failure to apply pressure, combined with the giant arms sale, is raising fears that he may give the Saudis a green light to escalate the fighting, as well as find other ways to beef up America’s own support for Riyadh – by Editorial Board

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/opinion/cholera-yemen-war-humanitarian-crisis.html

My comment: That is all true – but keep in mind that it was your „Sunny Boy“ Obama who made this war possible and who fueled it by military and political support for Saudi Arabia.

Comment: We expect better from The New York Times.
Obviously war is not the solution to the problems of #Yemen and what the paper 'forgets' is that the siege on Hodeidah port is not 'virtual' as people are dying of famine and lack of medicines and that Saudis should have NO saying in Yemen's present and future.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1383216968397996

25.5.2017 – The American Conservative (* B K P)

Michael Horton’s analysis of the war on Yemen is excellent as always. Here he addresses the plan to assault the port of Hodeidah.

Obviously the U.S. shouldn’t participate in what is very likely to be a costly debacle, and it should do everything possible to discourage the Saudis from launching an attack on the port. Not only would the attack potentially imperil the lives of millions of civilians by pushing many parts of the country into full-blown famine, but it likely wouldn’t produce the results the Saudi government wants anyway. Like the rest of the war on Yemen, it would be a senseless, cruel move that would only raise the costs for everyone involved.

Despite Saudi delusions to the contrary, they cannot win this war, and the U.S. ought to be pressing coalition governments to halt their campaign and pursue a negotiated settlement. At the same time, the coalition needs to be pressured to lift the blockade, and emergency efforts need to be made to raise the necessary funds and to deliver critical aid to those suffering from malnutrition and disease. Regrettably, I have no confidence that the current administration will do any of these things, and after last week’s display in Riyadh I fear that the Trump administration is only too willing to increase support for this disastrous war – by Daniel Larison

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-disastrous-war-on-yemen-continues/

25.5.2017 – Market Oracle (* A E P)

THE SAUDI ARMS DEAL SUDDENLY TRIPLED IN SIZE WITH LONG TIME SCHEDULE WITHIN THE AGREEMENT… TRUMP COMPLETED THE SINGLE LARGEST ARMS DEAL IN US-HISTORY, DONE WITH SAUDI ARABIA… IT EXCEEDED THE PREVIOUS COMMITMENT FROM TWO WEEKS AGO, NOW WORTH $350 BILLION… WITNESS US-STYLE ECONOMIC STIMULUS, THE TOXIC WAY… THE USGOVT SUPPORTS THE FADING SAUDI KINGDOM, SUPPORTS THEIR VICIOUS YEMEN WAR, AND APPLAUDS THEIR SUPPORT OF ISIS TERROR… THE USGOVT IS ENCOURAGING THE FORMATION OF A GULF REGION NATO, SURELY DEDICATED TO US-ARMS SUPPLY… CURIOUS THE PAYMENT METHOD TO COME, WITH CONJECTURE.

The US Military-industrial complex has come to the rescue of US Economy with the massive arms sale to the world's biggest purchaser of weapons, namely Saudi Arabia. Beyond the glitz and royal pageantry, President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in all likelihood had a main purpose to sell weapons, and to complete a gigantic $350 billion over the next decade. It will have weapon orders filled over time. In turn, the Saudi Royals have promised to invest $billions in the United States as well and to make other commitments designed to placate Trump. The pablum on the official line is that the first phase, with $109.7bn in weapons purchases, will boost Saudi Arabia's defense capabilities, bolstering their security services in the face of extreme terrorist groups, and the new threats from Iran. The White House added that the deal will create defense jobs while also reaffirming America's commitment to Saudi Arabia. What a load of rubbish! The Saudis created the Yemen War in order to steal their neighbor’s energy deposits, thus creating a critical situation with consequent certain backfire. The USGovt support of Saudi Arabia goes hand in hand with desperate clinging to the Petro-Dollar. The defacto standard is in its final phase of demise. So the USGovt pledges support to the entire Gulf set of partners, which means the oil monarchies. If the kings and princes do not respond with overt support, they risk being murdered, or having untold terrorism unleashed on their people – by Jim Willie

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article59152.html

25.5.2017 – Alternet (* A K T)

Trump’s latest disastrous raid kills more civilians in Yemen while US media obediently echoes the Pentagon

The latest U.S. military raid in Yemen was yet another disaster, resulting in the deaths of at least five civilians and the wounding of six more, according to a human rights group and sources in Yemen interviewed by Reuters – by Ben Norton

http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/yemen-us-military-raid-civilians-killed-media

24.5.2017 – Common Dreams (* A K P T)

Civilians Killed by US Largely Ignored as Endless Global War Continues

Borderless 'War on Terror'—now operated by President Donald Trump—continues to claim innocent lives around the world... but pattern holds that not all victims receive equal attention

Independent journalist Iona Craig, who has reported from the ground in Yemen for years, helped corroborate the version of events provided to Reprieve. "Five tribesmen amongst killed in US raid last night were not AQ," Craig tweeted on Tuesday. "They were tribesmen of young activists who drove me from Mareb into Yakla."

Kate Higham, head of the Assassinations Programme at Reprieve, said this week's killing of more innocent Yemenis proves that Trump is no better than his predecessors when it comes to protecting civilian lives.

"This new flawed raid by President Trump shows the US is not capable of distinguishing a terrorist from an innocent civilian," Higham said in a statement. "When even a 70-year-old is shot dead, it is clear these attacks are not targeted or precise. President Trump must order an immediate investigation into what went wrong and halt all raids and drone strikes before more innocent Yemenis are killed."

Yemen, of course, is not the only place where the U.S. military is claiming innocent lives. - by Jon Queally

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/24/civilians-killed-us-largely-ignored-endless-global-war-continues

Remark: More reporting on this raid YPR 304, cp1, cp14.

25.5.2017 – Sputnik News (A K)
The US Navy is including funding for 66 tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles in its $8.5 billion request to fund overseas contingency operations (OCO) for the 2018 fiscal year. These projectiles will replace those launched by US forces over the last year in Yemen and Syria.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201705251053992150-us-replenishes-tomahawk-missile-stockpile/

26.5.2017 – The Duran (A P)

Samantha Power criticizes Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, forgetting that she supported Saudi war crimes in Yemen (Video)

Hard to believe that the former UN Ambassador under Barack Obama, Samantha Power, would have the balls to talk down to US President Trump for supporting Saudi Arabia, citing the brutal Kingdom’s war against Yemen.

Power’s conveniently forgot that she proceeded over an American UN mission that voted for numerous illegal wars and government coups, including the overthrow of a democratically elected Ukraine government, the illegal destruction of Libya, and supporting ISIS as it invaded Syria.

And then there is Yemen, for which Power voted to support Saudi Arabia in its large scale bombing campaign on the poorest nation in the middle east.

Luckily, where Power’s memory fails her, many on twitter were around to remind her of her hypocrisy and outright criminality – by Alex Christoforou

http://theduran.com/samantha-power-criticizes-trumps-visit-to-saudi-arabia-forgetting-that-she-supported-saudi-war-crimes-in-yemen-video/

26.6.2017 – Sputnik News (A P)

US President Donald Trump's $110 billion weapons deal with Saudi Arabia turns a blind eye to the kingdom's support for terrorism, war on Yemen and repression of human rights, US Senator Patrick Leahy said on Friday.

https://sputniknews.com/us/201705261054024237-trump-arms-deal-saudis/

20.5.2017 – Antiwar (A P)

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Condemns New US Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) today condemned the Trump Administration’s new $460 billion arms deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – $110 billion immediately and $350 billion over the next 10 years – a country with a devastating record of human rights violations at home and abroad, and a long history of providing support to terrorist organizations that threaten the American people.

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2017/05/20/rep-tulsi-gabbard-condemns-new-us-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia/

22.5.2017 – Fair (* A P)

Arms Deal Stories Omit War Crimes Arms Will Be Used For

The vast majority of the reports on the topic, however, omitted a rather key piece of context—namely, whom the weapons will be used to kill.

he arms deal was typically framed in vague “security” terms, with an emphasis on Saudi Arabia’s role in fighting “terrorism” (e.g., “The White House says the package includes defense equipment… to help the Arab nation and the rest of the Gulf region fight against terrorism”—Fox News, 5/20/17), despite the fact that the bulk of its military activity is focused on bombing Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen that have nothing to do with terrorism as such.

Indeed, the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed earlier this month his forces were “fighting alongside” the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. This detail was also omitted from reports on the arms deal, presumably because it would messy up the “Saudi Arabia–as–partner–in–War on Terror” narrative the press was uncritically echoing – by Adam Johnson

http://fair.org/home/arms-deal-stories-omit-war-crimes-arms-will-be-used-for/ and another article on this subject: https://sputniknews.com/politics/201705251053953050-trump-saudis-role-sunni-terror-oil-deals/

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

Siehe / Look at cp1

26.5.2017 – Owen Jones (A P)

Film: This really can't be tweeted enough. This is a work of art. [Minister of Defense Michael Fallon]

Michael Fallon went after Jeremy Corbyn following a quote without realising that the quote was actually by Boris Johnson

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/868202317350305793 and lhttps://twitter.com/NewPakistan2020/status/868597304672104449

26.5.2017 – Counterpunch (* B P)

Sickening Cowardice”: Now More Than Ever, Britain’s Theresa May Must be Held to Account on the Plight of Yemen’s Children

The death count from the terrorist attack on Manchester’s now sits at twenty two. Almost sixty others wounded. The sad toll from an act of shockingly brutal callousness now seems to have thankfully stopped increasing.

True to form various politicians and media pundits have swooped in to give their verdict, some more sincere than others.

Yet it’s Prime Minister May’s verdict that is of particular interest. Branding the intentional targeting of children as “sickening cowardice” (it is) she seems to have made a point only to trip and fall. May’s government is behind a veritable upsurge in Britain’s arms trade, seeing weapons exports continue to end up in the hands of a government known for targeting civilians, kids included. I am of course referring to Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen.

This isn’t political point scoring.

The Prime Minister’s comments are thus problematic, at the very least. For May to remain steadfast on selling weapons to Riyadh whilst denouncing violence elsewhere is just base hypocrisy. The question is, will this be addressed?

Most likely not. At the risk of sounding cynical, Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is entrenched and long-lasting,

The big picture matters. Speaking the truth is a must. And the sad truth is that Saudi Arabia’s own acts of “sickening cowardice” against children is not something Theresa May is in a hurry to condemn. Chances are it won’t even occur to her. Calls for her to do so will be met with silence. This need to change – by Daniel Read

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/26/sickening-cowardice-now-more-than-ever-britains-theresa-may-must-be-held-to-account-on-the-plight-of-yemens-children/

25.5.2017 – The Guardian (A P)

Jeremy Corbyn links foreign policy to growing terror threat

Labour leader will resume electioneering with stress on links between terrorism at home and wars abroad

Corbyn and his close aides have long held the view that British foreign policy, including the involvement of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he vehemently opposed, has exacerbated the risk of terrorist attacks by destabilising the Middle East and fuelling suspicion of the west.

In a speech at the Chatham House thinktank in May, he suggested a Labour government would seek to rely on a “triple commitment” to defence, development and diplomacy, to protect Britain’s interests, rather than a “bomb first, talk later” mentality – by Heather Stewart

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/25/jeremy-corbyn-links-foreign-policy-to-growing-terror-threat

23.5.2017 – Prole Star (A P)

As a Mancunian, hearing a woman who sells the Saudis bombs to kill Yemeni children talk about #Manchester makes me sick to my stomach (photos)

https://twitter.com/TheProleStar/status/867017592044752896

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

25.5.2017 – Publikumskonferenz (* A P)

Programmbeschwerde: Systematische Irreführung über den Krieg gegen Jemen

„Im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen breitet sich die Cholera immer stärker aus [...]“
So sieht infame Desinformation über das Geschehen auf der arabischen Halbinsel aus. Und genau so beginnt am 21. Mai 17 auch die „Tagesschau“-Hauptausgabe ihren verfälschenden Bericht über einen Krieg, der schon seit Jahren kein „Bürgerkrieg“ mehr ist, sondern blutiger Terror, mit dem das reiche Saudi-Arabien und seine Alliierten, militärisch unterstützt von den USA und Großbritannien, seit Jahr und Tag den Jemen überziehen, eines der ärmsten Länder der Welt. Ein weiterer Bruch des Völkerrechts, und zudem begehen diese Länder beinahe tagtäglich schlimmste Kriegsverbrechen, indem sie zivile Ziele bombardieren und bereits zehntausende Tote zu verantworten haben. Weiter heißt es in dem skandalösen Tagesschau-Angebot aus der Giftküche für transatlantische Propaganda:

Über die Verbrechen am jemenitischen Volk und das resultierende Elend hat sich ARD-aktuell entgegen seiner Informationspflichten monatelang fast vollständig in Schweigen gehüllt, nicht weniger schändlich als die Kanzlerin Merkel und ihre Regierung.
Sorgfältig vermeidet die widerwärtige Melange aus Regierungspolitik und Tagesschau-Qualitätsjournalismus aktuelle und präzise Informationen über Hintergründe, Interessenlagen und Beteiligte an diesem Krieg. Dass es um geostrategische Interessen am Persischen Golf und im Arabischen Meer geht, die Saudis hier für ein Kriegsabenteuer im Iran üben, den nun offenbar auch US-Präsident Trump voranzutreiben gedenkt (und bereits mit Drohnenbombardements auf jemenitische Ziele vorbereiten hilft) – findet in den „Nachrichten“ der Tagesschau keine Erwähnung. Systematische Irreführung ist auch, dass die indirekte deutsche Beteiligung (Waffenlieferungen an die Saudis, Bündnispolitik mit diesem Despotenstaat) und die Doppelmoral der Bundesregierung seitens ARD-aktuell verständnisinnig ignoriert werden – von Volker Bräutigam, Friedhelm Klinkhammer

https://publikumskonferenz.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2022&p=6799

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

28.5.2017 – Fars News (A P)

Pakistani Commander of Saudi-Led Anti-Yemen Coalition Mulling Resignation

Former Pakistani army chief, Raheel Sharif, who was appointed to head the Saudi-led military coalition against Yemen is attempting to find a way for leaving and returning home.

According to the Pakistani newspaper Daily Osaf, Sharif is dissatisfied with the US strong influence on Saudi Arabia and thinks that the coalition cannot move in the direction he had planned.

According to the report, Riyadh is attempting to limit Sharif's role and make him obedient, but the Pakistani General cannot accept such a situation and is thinking to tender his resignation.

The appointment of a popular Pakistani general to head the Saudi-led coalition against another Muslim state set off a furor in Pakistan, amid fears that the move could exacerbate sectarian tensions at home.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960307001297

My comment: It is not the Saudi coalition in Yemen war, but the ephemere Saudi anti-terrorism coalition of 34 Muslim states.

26.5.2017 – New News (A P)

“Saudi Arabia is not Enemy, Selling US Weapons Never Threat Israel”:Former Zionism Military Intelligence head

Former zionism military intelligence head who heads INSS, “Amos Ydlin” said combat means that Saudi received within huge deal of weapons between Saudi and US won’t be danger on Israel .

For Hurts newspaper, he added,there are many components some are positive while some others involved many risks as any security issue .

He stated, in this deal we have to care about the shared interests that established between Israel and Saudi within center threats at the middle east . As well ,he said “Saudi Arabia isn’t a real enemy ” .

http://newnewss.net/?p=5761

25.5.2017 – Bloomberg (* B K P)

U.A.E. May Fly Warplanes From Somalia as Africa Reach Grows

Proposed Somaliland base to sit on busy world shipping route

Emirates increasingly flexing its diplomatic, military muscle

A proposed United Arab Emirates base in semi-autonomous northern Somalia may add a naval facility to a military airport, extending the Arab nation’s reach on the Horn of Africa coastline, a Somali official said.

The U.A.E. has leased the airport in the Somaliland port town of Berbera for 25 years and is still negotiating terms of use, Somaliland Foreign Minister Saad Ali Shire said in an interview.

Famed for its financial allure and skyscrapers, the U.A.E. is increasingly flexing its military and diplomatic muscle as traditional Arab powers are mired in war or political turmoil.

The proposed Somaliland base could be the U.A.E.’s second in Africa, after reports of one being established in Eritrea.

The UN monitors said in an October 2015 report that the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen “may be offering” Eritrea monetary compensation for the use of its land, airspace and territorial waters. Shire said the U.A.E. military base at Assab consists of an airport and a naval facility – by Nizar Manek

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-24/u-a-e-may-fly-warplanes-from-somalia-as-it-expands-africa-reach

Comment: Focus should shift to the UAE and their coordinated plan to invade, or use or - like for #Socotra island - ''send humanitarian aid'' to strategic locations.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1383295601723466

24.5.2017 – Washington Post (* A P)

After assurances by Trump, Bahrain mounts deadliest raid in years on opposition

A raid by government forces in Bahrain against a pro-opposition stronghold has left at least five people dead and hundreds detained in one of the deadliest crackdowns since protests erupted in 2011 against the Persian Gulf nation’s Western-backed monarchy.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said it carried out the raid Tuesday in the village of Duraz. It said officers came under attack, including from assailants armed with explosives. Opposition activists said that the police targeted a peaceful sit-in outside the home of Bahrain’s leading Shiite cleric and that the dead included an environmental activist.

Protests and clashes have flared for years in the tiny but strategic island nation between the Sunni-led monarchy and Bahrain’s majority Shiite population, which has complained of discrimination and other abuses. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The timing of the raid was striking, coming two days after President Trump publicly assured the king of Bahrain that their relationship would be free of the kind of “strain” that had occurred in the past — an apparent reference to the Obama administration’s periodic chiding of Bahrain over its human rights violations – by Kareem Fahim

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/after-assurances-by-trump-bahrain-mounts-deadliest-raid-in-years-on-pro-opposition-shiite-neighborhood/2017/05/24/6995e954-4067-11e7-9851-b95c40075207_story.html

27.5.2017 – Press TV Iran (A P)

Families of slain Bahrainis want Manama to return bodies of loved ones

The families of the activists killed by Bahraini security forces last week have called on the Al Khalifah regime to return the bodies of their loved ones.

The bereaved families issued a statement on Saturday, slamming the Manama regime’s refusal to return the bodies as violation of religious and human values as well as legal and ethical rights.

The statement stressed that the families of the victims will spare no effort to restore their rights legally.

On May 23, Bahraini forces raided the village of Diraz, which has been under a military siege for almost a year, and stormed into the home of Sheikh Isa Qassim, the spiritual leader of Bahrain's Shia majority.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/05/27/523388/Bahrain-uprising-Manama-Diraz-Shiukh-Qassim = http://newnewss.net/?p=5799

cp12a Katar / Qatar

A sudden conflict between Qatar and the other Gulf States has broken up, with objections against each other. There are several articles showing anti-Qatar propaganda from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates following here. And Qatar objects to the UAE that they and theit proxies are running secret prisons in Southern Yemen (look at cp1).

28.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (A P)

#Saudi war of words on #Qatar appears to be escalating & leaving no U-Turns. A coupe may take place #Doha from within with #UAE support

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/868945785290969089

28.5.2017 – Haykal Bafana (A P)

GCC update : Social media alight with news that Saudi Arabia & Qatar have closed their borders to each other.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/868948803264675845

28.5.2017 – Reuters (* A P)

UAE minister warns Gulf alliance faces a major crisis

A United Arab Emirates government minister on Sunday warned that an alliance of Gulf Arab states was facing a major crisis and he said there was an urgent need to rebuild trust.

Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, made his comments on Twitter less than a week after Saudi Arabia and the UAE signaled frustration at Qatar. Its state media published purported remarks by Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani criticizing Gulf rhetoric against Iran and suggesting strains between the emir and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Tensions have been rising between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbors, who accuse Tehran of trying to expand its influence in Arab countries including Syria and Yemen.

Qatar denied making the critical comments, saying its news agency had been hacked, but Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates allowed their state-backed media to continue running the story, angering Doha.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council countries are passing through a new sharp crisis that carries within it a great danger," Gargash said. "Fending off sedition lies in changing behavior, building trust and regaining credibility," he added, without mentioning Qatar by name.

Gulf countries have made no official comment on the rift, which emerged after Trump's first visit to Saudi Arabia and his meetings with Arab and Muslim heads of state since he took office. But a war of words had escalated between Qatari media on one side and Saudi and Emirati media on the other.

The row appears to emanate from old accusations made in 2014 that Qatar backs Islamists outlawed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE as terrorist organizations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-idUSKBN18O0HA

29.5.2017 – The National UAE (* A P)

Outrage after Al Jazeera posts tweet insulting Saudi king

http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/outrage-after-al-jazeera-posts-tweet-insulting-saudi-king

28.5.2017 – Arab News (A P)

Qatar’s emir wants ties with Iran to be ‘stronger than ever before’

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani has said his country enjoyed deep and historical ties with Iran.
In a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday, Al-Thani said he wanted the ties with Iran to be “stronger than ever before.”
The remarks confirm lingering suspicions that have been swirling in the world media that Qatar was in league with Iran against its fellow Arab and Gulf countries. Iran is seen as the root cause of all the troubles in the Arab world — from Syria to Iraq, to Yemen and Lebanon.
Al-Thani said he will instruct the authorities in his country to exert all efforts to develop relations with Tehran. Rouhani stressed that one of Iran’s foreign policy pillars is continuation of cooperation with Qatar.
In comments that will be seen as ironical, Rouhani said that sectarianism is a major scourge that affects everybody’s security. Iran has vociferously and militarily promoted sectarianism in the Arab world through its armed militias.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1106196/middle-east

My comment: By a Saudi media. Whatever, the very greatest promoter of sectarianims in the Moslem world is Saudi Arabia by it's spreading of Wahabism.

27.5.2017 – Al Arabiya (* A P)

ANALYSIS: Question marks arise over Qatar’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood

Many questions have risen recently regarding Qatar’s past and present support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its attempts to cleanse its image, despite the fact that Brotherhood leaders who fled Egypt have helped in forming armed operations and movements inside Egypt, receiving external support and military training.

Two of the most prominent armed movements were the Liwaa al-Thawra, “the Revolution Brigade,” and Hasm, which have claimed responsibility for carrying out a number of terrorist attacks targeting Egyptian officials, army and police positions.

The recent statements made by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Al-Thani, which Doha tried to refute by saying the statements were published by hackers on Qatar News Agency (QNA)’s website, contributed to raising, once again, the questions about Qatar and the reasons behind its support to the Muslim Brotherhood that is classified as a terrorist group in several Arab countries – by Jaber Al Joodi

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/05/27/ANALYSIS-Question-marks-arise-on-Qatar-s-ties-with-the-Muslim-Brotherhood.html

Comment by Hussam Al-Sanabani: More dirty laundry spread of the Gulf states support to ISIS.

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/868630638215254016

And it is still not enough:

27.5.2017 – Al Arabiya (A P)

ANALYSIS: Hezbollah and Qatar – a story of forbidden love?

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, described Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a resistance movement. He was quoted by the Qatar News Agency saying that it is “not wise” to be hostile to Iran, Hezbollah’s biggest sponsor.

Even if Qatar considers these statements from the emir to be fabricated, it cannot hide that its policies in recent years towards Hezbollah are parallel to these remarks, despite the havoc caused by the Syrian war. It is a case of forbidden love between the two.

In 2008, Qatar sponsored a meeting uniting all the Lebanese parties in Doha to end an 18-month-long deadlock. Qatari support to Hezbollah and its allies (the March 8 block) was clear – by Elia Jaziri

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/05/27/Hezbollah-and-Qatar-a-story-of-forbidden-love-.html

27.5.2017 – Adengad (* A P T)

Qatar funds covert operation to transport terrorists to Yemen

The State of Qatar has secretly financed the transfer of terrorists from Syria and Libya to Yemen to target Arab coalition forces and forces loyal to the legitimate government, government sources said.
"Qatar has begun to finance covert operations to transfer terrorists from Syria and Libya to target coalition forces in Yemen," a Yemeni government source told Reuters in Riyadh.
The source pointed out that there is fear of this action, which he said came as a reaction to the international trend towards the eradication of terrorism from Yemen, which is witnessing a bloody war waged by the Houthis and loyal to the ousted Saleh.
He said that the army and security command in Aden would increase its readiness during Ramadan for fear of possible terrorist attacks.

http://adengad.net/news/261332/ and in translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ar&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fadengad.net%2Fnews%2F261332%2F&edit-text=

Haykal Bafana (A P)

Extended bitching bout of accusations by Qatar, UAE & Saudi exposing more by the day which of them is the one that supports Al Qaeda.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/868567655741100032

25.5.2017 – Alwaght (* A P)

Qatar Incident Confirms Riyadh Summit Unity Façade

A statement posted on Qatar's news agency has thrown into disarray the façade of unity that was created at the recent Riyadh summit attended by US president Donald Trump.

Regardless of whether the statements attributed to Qatar Emir were true or published on the website of the Qatari News Agency (QNA) via hackers, the political scene which resulted from the media war on Wednesday confirms that the unanimity image of Riyadh summit was falsely promoted by Al Saud regime.

A QNA report criticized Saudi Arabia for fueling tensions with Iran prompting a sharp response from Persian Gulf nations. Doha has blamed unidentified hackers for breaking into the agency’s website and publishing fake news.

While Qatari officials, likely under pressure from other Arab states, deny these remarks alleging their state-run news agency were hacked by an ‘unknown entity’, Sky News Arabia reported that the country's official TV channel has also subtitled the Qatari kings remarks.

Other Persian Gulf nations reported the statements as authentic and rebuked Qatar for them. The authorities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also briefly blocked the website and cable broadcasting from Al Jazeera, the Qatar-sponsored global news channel.

“Qatar splits the rank, sides with the enemies of the nation,” Saudi Arabia's Okaz daily wrote.

Analysts believe the swift Saudi-Emirati response even before consulting Doha to get official confirmation, implies that there is deep mistrust among the Persian Gulf Sheikhdoms and the Riyadh Summit was just a pretense of unity.

http://alwaght.com/en/news/98602

25.5.2017 – Gulf News (* A P)

Qatar must stop undermining GCC interests

Doha isn’t doing itself a favour by trying to jeopardise Gulf efforts to defend its security and prosperity

The Yemen campaign represented a traditional show of unity and resolve among the GCC states — something expected from the bloc, considered by many as the only successful Arab organisation since the independence of most Arab countries in the first half of the last century.

Today, the GCC is faced with another challenge. And unfortunately, it is coming from within the ranks of the group. Shortly after the conclusion of last week’s GCC Consultative Summit in Riyadh, we were stunned by remarks, attributed to the Emir of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, during a military ceremony on Tuesday, in which he appeared to defy not only the official GCC policies on most critical issues — particularly Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah — but also to hint that the American bases in Qatar were the only guarantee to safeguard his country from the “threat posed by some neighbouring countries”.

Doha denied that the emir had spoken at the ceremony and claimed the statement was “fabricated”. Qatari officials curiously said the website and Twitter account of the official news agency, QNA, had been “hacked”. However, a quick look at the archives showed that the emir’s statement was not only carried by the news agency on its official website and Twitter account, but also on Qatari state television and other online platforms that belong to the state media outlets.

Understandably, Gulf media and observers were unimpressed with the Qatari explanation

http://gulfnews.com/opinion/editorials/qatar-must-stop-undermining-gcc-interests-1.2033064

Comment: The position of the Emirates on Qatar's remarks of last week.
This is a must read to understand the type of forces/dynamics moving the Gulf Cooperation Council.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1383692948350398

26.5.2017 – Al Arabiya (* A P)

What Bin Laden documents reveal about his relations with Qatar

The US administration has decided to speak out about Qatar’s relations with terrorism in the Middle East as the White House’s new administration tries to calm the situation and control the growing terrorism on the international level.

During his visit to the Middle East, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, warned Qatari officials about their country’s continued support to the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamic movements that are linked to extremist organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Qatar has been accused, more than once, of financing terrorist groups or turning a blind eye to the Qatari financiers such as Salim Hassan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari, who works at the Qatari Interior Ministry. He is accused of “transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to al-Qaeda through a terrorist network”. Kuwari was part of the US list of persons who are accused of officially financing terrorism in 2011.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2017/05/26/What-Bin-Laden-documents-reveal-about-his-relations-with-Qatar.html

My comment: Heavy objections of a Saudi media against Qatar. These objections certainly are correct. The whole article by itself shows the deep rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. - Anyway, in the case of links to Al Qaeda, Saudi Arabia is not any better than Qatar.

Comment by Hussam Al-Sanabani: Deploying the dirty laundry, exchange of media accusations reveals the interrelationship between these regimes & terrorism

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/867797592633217024

Comment by Syed-Makki Shah: Glass houses built inside giant glass domes with little men throwing stones at each other

https://twitter.com/SyedMakkiShah/status/868024947310030850

25.5.2017 – Middle East Eye (* A P)

Qatar points finger at 'hostile' US media after hack row

Qatar moved to play down a rift with its Gulf Arab neighbours who reacted harshly to leaked comments by the emir

Qatar is being targeted by a "hostile" campaign - particularly in the US media - its foreign minister said, a day after the Gulf state accused hackers of attributing false remarks to the emir on state media.

"There is a hostile media campaign against the State of Qatar, which we will confront," Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said, adding the campaign was "particularly in the United States".

Thani said there were 13 opinion articles "focused on Qatar" in US media in the last five weeks.

On the day of the hack, "a conference on Qatar convened without us attending while the authors of those articles were there," he said.

"Is this a coincidence?"

However, Thani played down fears of a rift with fellow Gulf Arab states, who reacted harshly to the leaked comments.

"Qatar is always in favour of maintaining strong and brotherly relations with GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries," he said.

"In Riyadh we had very positive discussions about the relationship between Gulf countries," he added, referring to talks in the Saudi capital.

On Wednesday, Qatar said it had launched an inquiry into the security breach.

Publication of the fake story, which hit Qatar's official news agency website and Twitter account just after midnight on Wednesday, led to ripples of reaction across the Gulf.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qatar-faces-hostile-campaign-particularly-us-fm-1896285800

and also

25.5.2017 – Hussam Al-Sanabani (A P)

The Saudi TV "AlArabiya" reviews Qatar's relations with extremist groups & its support for terrorism.

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/867791279412871169 referring to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7zs0nHgWa4

and

24.5.2017 – Press TV Iran (A P)

Websites of Al-Jazeera, Qatari dailies inaccessible in Saudi Arabia, UAE

Saudi and Emirati authorities have blocked access to the website of Doha-based and state-funded al-Jazeera Arabic news channel after statements attributed to Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on sensitive regional topics sparked a dispute among Persian Gulf kingdoms.

On Wednesday, the website of the pan-Arab satellite broadcaster was not accessible in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The website and Twitter accounts of official Qatar News Agency, al-Jazeera Documentary channel, al-Jazeera English news channel, Arabic-language and political newspaper al-Watan, semi-official al-Raya newspaper, al-Arab daily as well as Arabic and pro-government al-Sharq daily were also inaccessible in both countries during the day.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/05/24/523088/AlJazeera-Arabic-website-inaccessible-Saudi-Arabia-UAE-Qatar-emir-remarks-Iran-Hamas-US-Trump = http://newnewss.net/?p=5740

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

30.3.2016 – Jerusalem Post (* A K P)

REPORT: SAUDI ARABIA BUYS DRONES FROM ISRAEL THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

Claim made by a Saudi political analyst who is well known for leaking exclusive information about the royal family of Saudi Arabia on Twitter.

In a series of remarks he wrote on his Twitter page Wednesday, the Saudi analyst suggested that the official report released by the Saudi Defense Ministry according to which the kingdom would build a drone factory in collaboration with South Africa is false.

„The report aims to hide the fact that Saudi Arabia intends to purchase drones from Israel via South Africa," the analyst, calling himself "Mujtahid", claimed.
He further stated: "Notwithstanding the political controversies between Israel and South Africa, the military cooperation between both states strongly continues, enabling South Africa to purchase drones from Israel.“- by Maayan Groisman

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Saudi-Arabia-purchases-drones-from-Israel-through-South-Africa-449779

cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner

28.5.2017 – Licing in Yemen on the edge (B K P)

We are "mercenaries"?
The opposition Sudanese writer / Abdel Moneim Suleiman writes:

When the slave markets are reopened by a decision of the head of state, and spirits become a commodity sold on the market .. When the self-deprecating and insulting dignity in this blatant form, the condemnation of the "keyboard" becomes one of the weakest faith in the homeland .. Silence becomes a crime.
That the majority of the people of Sudan feel shame crowned them from their heads to their feet .. After being confused by their "president", humiliated in the war against their people in Yemen .. After the title "mercenary" in Yemen became brand registered for the "Sudanese"

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1386282374758122/?type=3&

26.5.2017 – Sudan Tribune (* A K P)
21 Sudanese troops killed in Yemen: Military sources

Sudanese military sources Saturday have dismissed media reports that 80 Sudanese troops have been killed in Yemen saying only 21 were killed, including 4 officers.

Media reports last week said the Houthis attacked Sudanese forces belonging to the Arab coalition near the Medi desert in Hajjah province, killing and injuring more than 80 Sudanese troops.

Military sources told Sudan Tribune the losses suffered by the Sudanese forces, “normal”, pointing out the forces came under the bombardment of the Houthis after the "excellent progress" achieved on the operational level.

He pointed that the front of the troops came under heavy fires after seizing important positions, stressing the Sudanese troops’ injuries were mostly minor.

According to the same source, high-ranking officers have been dispatched to Yemen to ensure tight operational coordination “because the number of casualties in the last battle is the greatest loss among our forces.”

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article62567

25.5.2017 – Middle East Monitor (A K P)

Sudan military rejects claims of heavy losses in Yemen

A military source from Sudan speaking to MEMO has denied claims that Houthi rebels in Yemen have inflicted heavy casualties on Sudanese forces fighting as part of Saudi Arabia’s coalition in northern Yemen.

In response to Yemen’s pro-rebel SABA news agency claims that up to 83 Sudanese soldiers, including four senior officers, had been killed, the military source said that just 15 soldiers were lost and 70 fighters were injured, some lightly, others more seriously.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170525-sudan-military-rejects-claims-of-heavy-losses-in-yemen/

Remark: Reports in YPR 304, cp17. There is a lot of footage showing the killed Sudanese fighters. Of course, the figures given by the Houthi / Saleh side might be exaggerated – as the figures by the Sudanese will be too low. The old subject of war propaganda – since Pharaonic times.

cp13c Flüchtlinge / Refugees

30.4.2017 - International Organization for Migration, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (A H)

Yemen Situation: Regional Refugee and Migrant Response: Arrivals from Yemen into the Horn of Africa - as of 30 April 2017

95,807 arrivals from Yemen to the Horn of Africa

32,503 arrivals (13,544 refugees and 18,959 Somali returnees) have been registered/received by UNHCR

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-regional-refugee-and-migrant-response-arrivals-yemen-horn-africa-30 and in full: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/57066

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

Siehe / Look at cp1

26.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Yemen Security Brief

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a statement denying that the May 23 U.S. raid in Ma’rib governorate struck an AQAP camp. AQAP identified and praised five members of the Murad tribe who died in the fighting and claimed that the camp was not affiliated with al Qaeda. A pro-AQAP social media account also claimed that the Murad tribesmen forced the U.S. forces to retreat. [2]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-26-2017

27.7.2017 – Bipartisan Report (* A K T)

Trump Launched Another Disastrous Yemen Raid – The Aftermath Is Devastating

Oh President Trump, can you do anything right? It would seem that the president’s latest military operation in Yemen was as big of a flop as the first one.

Local sources reported that Nasser Al-Adha, a man who is partially blind and 70 years old, came outside his home to welcome the visitors, assuming that they were guests there to see him. He was promptly shot and killed on the spot.

Upon coming to see what the commotion was, four more civilians were killed after getting into an argument with the SEAL team. The SEAL team also seriously injured another six villagers on top of those that they killed.

The al-Qaeda group that Trump had intended to target was somewhere in the vicinity and were alerted that something was going on by the gunshots. A short firefight started, leaving several soldiers from America injured, and killing two AQAP militants.

It has been staggering how many civilians have been dying, and at an alarming rate. In fact, the US military just admitted that they had killed 101 civilians in a single air strike in Iraq last month. That is just a fraction of the number of civilians who have died over the last few weeks.

Considering how Trump treats the very people he was elected to help, it is no surprise that he doesn’t care for Yemenis either.

http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/05/25/trump-launched-another-disastrous-yemen-raid-the-aftermath-is-devastating/

Remark: More reporting YPR 304.

cp15 Propaganda

27.5.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)

Children Victims of Houthis Recruitment to Rehabilitation Centers

The Yemeni government is willing to establish a center to take care of children captives who were recruited by Houthi insurgents. The purpose of the center is to rehabilitate the children after the great damage caused to them due to being obliged to carry out military affairs unsuitable for their ages.

Yemeni Deputy Minister of Human Rights Mohammad Askar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government has monitored 2,000 cases of children recruitment by Houthis in Aden, Taiz, Ma’rib, al-Jawf and Dhale.

He noted that initial estimates show that 10,000 children in Yemen were recruited by militias.

Some media reports estimated the number of mobilized children as 15,000.

http://english.aawsat.com/a-alghabiri/news-middle-east/children-victims-houthis-recruitment-rehabilitation-centers

My comment: See below. A new propaganda campaign on this old subject has been started.

Comment by Judith Brown: well this article is from a Saudi source, but it is a twisted version of truth. Boys are recruited to fight in militias, many thousands of them, but it is not so simple as being kidnapped or abducted to fight - they fight because they want to do so, to earn money for their families and get enough to eat - and also, teenage boys are seen as ready to fight culturally. Of course, if they are caught as POA they will have to say that they were forcibly made to fight, and they are 'educated' or maybe brainwashed to change their mindset. Either way, its a sad state of affairs when children have no option in life but to fight. Damn this war.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155563670053641

26.5.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)

Saleh-Houhi Insurgents Accused of Recruiting 15,000 Children in Yemen

A report published by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Thursday accused Houthi and Saleh militias of increasing their forced recruitment of Yemeni tribal children by bribing their elders with cash and jobs to lure children to the battlefronts without the knowledge of their families.

Local observers affirmed that 15,000 children recruited by Houthis are participating in the fighting and in planting mines. The children are being used as human shields and guards at checkpoints.

The observers pointed out that in addition to recruiting Yemeni orphans, the militias have resorted to threats to force many Yemeni families to send their children to the battlefronts.

http://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/news-middle-east/saleh-houhi-insurgents-accused-recruiting-15000-children-yemen

My comment: This is propaganda recycling, 83. repeat. Look at earlier reports and comments.

25.5.2017 – Saba New (A P)

Yemen, Saudi Arabia discuss reconstruction, economy recovery

Minister of Industry and Commerce Mohammad al-Maitami discussed Thursday with Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammad al-Jeda'an reconstruction and economic recovery in Yemen.
"We believe Saudi Arabia is the strategic partner to Yemen and this confirmed by historical and social relations linking the two people," said al-Maitami.
For his part, al-Jeda'an confirmed that the kingdom has been and will remain the greatest supporter to Yemen's development and is working side by side the government of Yemen in coordination with international financial institutions to provide financing package from donors for construction.

http://www.sabanew.net/viewstory.php?id=17733

My comment: By „president“ Hadi's Saba News agency. - Absurd propaganda when keeping in mind that it is Saudi Arabia who has coaused the greatest part of destruction and disater in Yemen. Saudi Arabia „ the strategic partner to Yemen“ (Hadi gov.) and „the greatest supporter to Yemen's development“ (Saudi)?? Whow.

25.5.2017 – International Institute for Counter Terrorism ( A P)

Yemen’s Houthis: New Members of Iran’s Anti-Israeli/Anti-American Axis

A physical Iranian presence based on a strategic cooperation with the Houthis, both ground and naval, in Yemeni ports of the Red Sea, the control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the threat to free navigation from Israel's Eilat Southern harbor, represent a direct threat to Israel's security and interests.

Moreover, this project will permit Iran to completely encircle Israel on the Lebanese, Syrian, Gazan and now Yemeni frontiers, and increase the ground and naval challenges for the Jewish state.

The Houthis, Hezbollah and other Shi'ite "foreign fighters" could use a territorial presence in Yemen to threaten Israeli, American and Western interests in the region and beyond, in a similar way as Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP). - by Ely Karmon

http://www.ict.org.il/Article/2017/yemens-houthis-new-members-of-irans-anti-israeli-anti-american-axis = http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Yemens-Houthis-New-members-of-Irans-anti-Israelianti-American-axis-494170

My comment: A long article, trying to put together all „evidence“ for Houthi-Iranian ties. This article evidently must be labeled as propaganda – well fitting into Trump's anti-Iranian war-mongering campaign, for which Israel is a close ally. - For the author look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Karmon . For the ICT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Institute_for_Counter-Terrorism . Keep in mind that for Israel the IS is much less awful than Iran or the Assad government of Syria.

25.5.2017 – Saudi Press Agency (A P)

Al-Houthi, Saleh Coup Militias Loot International Aid in Yemen

Statements made recently by the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, on the involvement of Al-Houthi and ousted Saleh coup militias and their looting and theft of food and pharmaceutical aid being provided by the international community to Yemen came to confirm to the world that they are behind the aggravation of the tragedy being experienced by Yemeni citizens in the governorates under these militias' control.
Al-Houthi militias are exerting strong pressure on the United Nations and crying out before the international community to prevent the Arab Coalition from liberating the port of Hodeidah in order to continue the flow of aid through this port for easy looting and theft through its supervisors who belong to the coup militias of Al-Houthi and the deposed Saleh.
Media sources and observers said that despite the international efforts and consecutive convoys of aid docking at the port of Hodeidah, they don't find their way to hungry and needy Yemenis, but to the pockets of Al-Houthi leaders by looting and selling them on the black market in pretexts invented by these leaders on the expiring of their dates and then unload the shipments and sell them to traders belonging to the party of the ousted Ali Abdullah Saleh and in this context, the latest aid convoy destined for Taiz governorate and consisted of 200 trucks was stolen completely and sold to pro-Saleh militias.
Moreover, the coup militias are selling relief and humanitarian aid in the markets to raise illegal funds to finance their criminal war operations.

http://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1634312

My comment: This is odd propaganda. Yes, Houthis are looting humanitarian aid, as do other parties of the conflict. But this article tries to give the impression the Houthis would loot the greatest part of humanitarian help. Anyway, the Saudi Press Agency (and the Saudi foreign minister quoted here) certainly are bad sources for such a story. Certainly the relief organisations themselves would be much better testimonials, and they should be asked about their experiences with the Houthis. - And all international relief organisations clearly warn of any Saudi coalition attempts to attack Hodeida.

This article is a part of the Saudi propaganda campaign to justify the coalition attempts to obtain the control of Hodeida, either by pressure on the UN to get the Houthis out by negotiations, or militarily. That is clearly expressed here – the Houthis would be „crying out before the international community to prevent the Arab Coalition from liberating the port of Hodeidah“.

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

28.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by #Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 27 May 2017 (full list):

https://twitter.com/LCRDye/status/868615709487763456

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt27.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by #Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 26 May 2017 (full list):

https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/832562680227432/?type=3

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt26.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by #Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 25 May 2017 (full list):

https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/831668210316879/?type=3

29.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Taiz: Arab Coalition aircrafts bomb Houthis sites

The Saudi-led Arab Coalition aircrafts launched Saturday evening several air raids on reinforcements of the the Houthi militants and forces loyal to former president Saleh in northern al Mocha district western Taiz, southwestern Yemen.

A source in the field told Almasdaronline that the aircrafts launched five air raids on Houthis reinforcements in northern al Mocha, while they were coming from al Khocha district southern Hodeida province.

“Nine militants were killed and 13 others injured in the aerial bombardment, and four military vehicles destroyed.”

The aircrafts also launched a number of air raids on the rebels’ sites eastern Khalid military camp and near the center of the Mozza district, killing 5 and wounding 10 others.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91556

Remark: It seems to be actually this:

28.5.2017 – Ahmad Alghobary (A K)

2 men were driving in Moza'a road #Taiz , #Saudi air strike killed them ,it burnt them a live #Yemen

https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/868936574226100224

28.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Three Saudi strikes hit Marib

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465784.htm

27.-28.5.2017 – Sanaa at night (A K)

#Saudi jets are hovering over the capital Sanaa now #Yemen God save your human beings in #Ramadan

https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/868592113235177472

Breaking : #Saudi air strike rocks the capital #Sanaa targeting Attan mountain #Yemen

https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/868595575712878593

1:20AM, massive explosion from airstrike just rocked Sana'a now. Zero courtesy for first night of Ramadan & fact ppl struggling here.

https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/868593632202412033

2 airstrikes on Attan mountain by Saudi-led coalition 13 minutes ago #Sanaa

https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/868597122970644480

28.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Coalition aircrafts strike Houthis sites and equipment in Lahj – website

The aircrafts of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition launched on Saturday several airstrikes on the sites of the Houthis-Saleh forces in the Almadharebah district of Lahj province, southern Yemen.

September Net news website, of the pro-government forces, quoted a field source as saying that the raids targeted the sites and equipment of the Houthis and allied forces in Kahboub mountains of Almadharebah, west of Lahj.

The source pointed out that the Houthis have suffered heavy losses of militants and equipment.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91541

27.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Arab Coalition aircrafts launch four airstrikes on Houthis-Saleh forces’ sites in Dhamar - residents

Local residents said on Friday that the Saudi-led Arab Coalition aircrafts have launched four airstrikes on the sites of the Houthis-Saleh forces in Bani Swaid area of Dawran Anis district in Dhamar province, central Yemen.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91528

27.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Saudi airstrikes hit Marib

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465727.htm

26.-27.5.2017 – Sanaa at night (A K)

#Yemen capital Sanaa : #Saudi jets made steep bombing runs during tarawih prayers in the mosques here. I presume they'll be back at dawn.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/868239060963385344

25.-26.5.2017 – Sanaa at night (A K)

war planes hovering madly over the sky of #Sanaa***
12:50

https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1681053465523974

27.5.2017 – Saba Net (* A K PH)

Eight citizens killed in Saudi air strikes on Taiz

Eight citizens were killed and five others wounded in Saudi airstrikes on their house in Maqbanah district of Taiz province, an official told Saba on Saturday.
The warplanes hit the house of citizen three times in Al Kamab area, added the official.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465729.htm

and the same raid:

26.5.2017 – Press TV Iran (* A K PH)

Saudi-led airstrikes kill more Yemeni civilians

Airstrikes by Saudi Arabia and a number of its vassal states on residential buildings in Yemen’s south have killed six civilians, including women and children.

The indiscriminate airstrikes hit houses in the southern Yemeni city of Ta’izz on Friday, killing the six people and injuring a number of others, Yemen’s al-Masirah TV reported.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/05/26/523260/Yemen-Saudiled-airstrikes-civilian-toll and photos: https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1681447102151277 = https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/868454631306928128 and and photos: https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1385426551510371

and also

26.5.2017 – New News (* A K PH)

Eight martyrs including a little girl and five others wounded in dangerous cases .

Local source stated that the US-KSA aggression’s warplanes launched three air strikes on Alkanab area of Maqnah district. The air raids targeted a house ,a wood shop which belong to “Mohammad Ayedh” and a shop for oil changes.

According to the source , the martyrs’ numbers have increased to eight including a girl while five injured in risk situation (photos)

http://newnewss.net/?p=5780

and that's what the other side makes of this raid:

27.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Taiz: Arab Coalition strikes Houthi gatherings, kills eight civilians by mistake

The Saudi-led Arab Coalition aircrafts launched on Friday several air raids on the Houthis-Saleh forces’ sites and reinforcements in Maqbanah and Mozza districts western Taiz province, central Yemen.

A military source told Almasdaronline that the aircrafts launched six air raids on the militias’ reinforcements and sites in al Barh area of Maqbanah district, killing seven militants and wounding 11 others, including prominent leaders.

Moreover, the aircrafts launched four other air raids on the militias’ gatherings and sites in Ruwais area northern al Mocha district, killing seven and wounding 9 others, as well as destroying three military vehicles.

On Thursday evening, an airstrike launched by the coalition aircrafts had hit a house for innocent civilians in al Barah area, which killed eight people and

injured 12 others, whom were displaced from coastal districts of Taiz.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91519

My comment: That's Saudi tactics and propaganda from the very beginning of this war: Declare everything, everybody as „Houthi“, - bomb first, ask later (if ever).

26.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Coalition shells Houthis’ positions and reinforcements, intercept ballistic missile west of Taiz

The Arab Coalition aircrafts renewed on Thursday the aerial bombardment on the positions and reinforcements of the Houthis-Saleh militias in Maqbanah and Mozza districts west of Taiz, southwestern Yemen.

A source in the field told Almasdaronline that the coalition aircrafts launched three raids Thursday morning on Houthis-Saleh reinforcements in al Saar area of al Barah region west of Maqbanah, and four raids on their positions east of Khaled camp in central Mozza.

The air raids have killed 12 militants and wounded 21 others, and destroyed two military vehicles for the militias. According to the source.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91510

25.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Saudi airstrike hits Sanaa

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465561.htm

26.5.2017 – Saudi War Crimes (* A K PH)

Photos: 35 bodies of victims of the crime of targeting the alliance of aggression buried a boat Somali refugees in Hodeidah

The Red Cross Organization in the province of Hodeidah in cooperation with the Executive Unit of the IDP camps on Thursday buried 35 bodies of victims of the crime of targeting the air force to the Somali immigrant boat off the coast of Hodeidah. A local source said that the bodies were buried in coordination between the organization and the security and judiciary and the executive unit of the province after the completion of the burial procedures in one of the tombs of the city and under the supervision of the local authority. An Apache plane belonging to the Saudi Aggression Coalition in mid-March committed a terrible massacre in which 43 people were killed and 39 injured in a boat targeting 140 Somali refugees near the coast of Hodeidah.

https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1681418295487491

and also by the Red Cross: https://twitter.com/ICRC/status/868089433064693761

15.5.2017 – Humanity 9 9 (* A H K)

Film: What Saudi Arabia is Doing in Yemen +18 (graphic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biF7hv103oE

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

28.5.2017 – Al Arabiya (* A K PS)

Yemen: 1,500 mines destroyed in Midi as battles intensify

Engineering teams belonging the Yemeni National Army and the Arab coalition destroyed about 1500 mines in the Midi region in Hajjah Governorate on Sunday.

The Media Center of the Fifth Military Region said that Houthi militias and forces loyal to ousted-president Ali Abdullah Saleh planted these multi-purpose mines in a number of areas of the Directorate, such as farms ad roads. The engineering teams de-mined and destroyed them because they target civilian lives.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2017/05/28/Yemen-1500-mines-destroyed-in-Midi-as-battles-intensified.html

28.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PH)

the Saudi-paid mercenaries' artillery shelled farms and houses of citizens in Serwah district, Marib prov.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465784.htm

28.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Seven civilian casualties in Houthis’ shelling of a house west of Taiz

Two civilians were killed and five others wounded on Friday evening in an artillery shelling launched by the Houthis-Saleh militias on a house in Mozza district west of Taiz.

A local source told Almasdaronline that the Houthis-Saleh militants in al Musna, east of Mozza, had shelled a house in al Safalia village, which resulted in the death of two civilian people, one of them a five-month-old girl.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91542

27.5.2017 – Mohammed al-Qadhi (* A K)

Film: in #Taiz ... spike of violence & living hardships. #Yemen

https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/868567000380997633

27.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Number of Sudanese soldiers killed in Taiz

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465725.htm

Remark: In earlier reports, 83 killed Sudanese soldiers had been claimed. Look also at cp13b.

27.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Woman killed in mercenaries' shelling

A woman was killed when Saudi-paid mercenaries shelled Salah district of Taiz province, a military official told Saba on Saturday.
The pregnant woman was killed when the mercenaries fired a mortar shell on the palace's traffic intersection

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465734.htm

25.5.2017 – Anadolu ( K)

Houthis, allies clash with army in southwestern Yemen

Fierce fighting continues to rage between Houthi militia, pro-government forces in Yemen’s Taiz province

At least 32 militants affiliated with the Shia Houthi militia and their allies -- along with six pro-government fighters -- were killed in Thursday clashes in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province, according to a local military official.

“Clashes in eastern Taiz left more than 27 Houthis and their allies dead and a number of others injured,” army spokesman Mansour al-Hassani told Anadolu Agency.

“Five Yemeni soldiers were also killed, while 20 others were injured,” he added.

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/houthis-allies-clash-with-army-in-southwestern-yemen/826329

My comment: Relying on Hadi army report / propaganda.

26.5.2017 - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (A K P)

Statement by the humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Mr. Jamie McGoldrick on the recent escalation of violence in Taizz city

I am deeply concerned at the continued reports of fighting in Taizz.

The escalation of violence over the last four days has resulted in tens of war-wounded arriving at medical facilities and multiple deaths. Most people affected by the recent clashes are innocent civilians trying to go about their daily lives, but are being swept up in the violence and indiscriminate shelling that is all to frequent in Taizz city and its surrounding. Approximately 70% of the war-wounded are women and children. They bear most of the consequences of the war and the continuing disregard for the protection of civilians.

I call on all parties to the conflict to uphold their duties under International Humanitarian Law and provide protection for civilians

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-yemen-mr-jamie-mcgoldrick-recent-escalation-violence

25.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A K)

Yemen Security Brief

Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi seized the Taiz University Medical College and Central Bank office from al Houthi-Saleh forces in eastern Taiz city on May 24. Hadi government forces are still fighting for control of Taiz’s Presidential Palace and the nearby al Ammar School, where al Houthi-Saleh forces are based. The Hadi government’s 22nd Mechanized Brigade, which includes the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)-linked Abu Abbas Brigade, began the offensive on May 22.[2]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-25-2017 and by Almasdar Online: http://almasdaronline.com/article/91492

27.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (* A K PS)

Two journalists killed, two others injured while covering clashes in Taiz – sources

Two journalists were killed and two others wounded Friday morning while covering the clashes in Taiz city after being targeted by a mortar shell fired by the Houthis- Saleh militants.

Sources in Taiz said that a mortar shell had landed on a group of local media reporters, killing Taqi al-Din al-Huthaifi and Wael al-Absi, and wounding Walid al-Qadasi and Salah al-Din al-Wahbani.

According to medical sources, the injury of Walid al-Qadasi had led to the amputation of his left leg, while Salah al-Wahbani had had a fracture in his right hand.

According to Al Jazeera correspondent in Taiz, the mortar shell hit the journalists while they were still outside the area of clashes.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91529

26.5.2017 – Al Araby (* A K)

Two cameramen killed in Yemen's Taiz

Two freelance cameramen were killed in rebel shelling of the outskirts of Yemen's third city Taiz on Friday as they filmed fighting with government troops, security officials said.

Another 16 civilians, including children, have been killed in rebel shelling since Monday, the city's health services chief Abdel Rahim Samai told AFP.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/5/27/two-cameramen-killed-in-yemens-taiz and also http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/rebel-shelling-kills-three-journalists-in-yemen and http://anadoluagency.com/fr/titres-de-la-journ%C3%A9e/y%C3%A9men-2-photojournalistes-tu%C3%A9s-dans-des-combats-%C3%A0-taizz/826651

and photo: https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/868149182284124160

and

27.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Yemeni Journalists Syndicate holds Houthis responsible for targeting five cameramen in Taiz

“We hold the leaders of the Huthis fully responsible for these crimes, which come after a series of systematic incitement against the media men by the group, led by the leader of the Houthi group, who explicitly called for eliminating the journalists”.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91546 and by Saudi media, which ofcourse takes this opportunity for propaganda: http://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/news-middle-east/yemeni-activists-houthi-instigated-journalists-killings

25.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A K)

Yemen Security Brief

Al Houthi-Saleh forces attacked Hadi government forces in Sirwah district, Ma’rib governorate on May 24. Al Houthi-Saleh forces claimed to kill Colonel Salah Faqa’s, a prominent Islah party leader from al Otma district, Dhamar governorate, and thirteen Hadi government fighters. Hadi government forces killed 12 al Houthi-Saleh fighters, according to pro-Islah media. Hadi government forces commanded by Yemeni Vice President Ali Mohsen al Ahmar are attempting to advance west through Ma’rib in order to launch an operation to recapture Sana’a, Yemen’s capital.[3]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-25-2017 and by Almasdar Online: http://almasdaronline.com/article/91493

Pro-Houthi / Pro Saleh reports:

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465782.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465785.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465789.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465794.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465797.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465797.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465800.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465801.htm

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/868593140508315648 (film)

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465730.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465728.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465733.htm

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2017/05/27/1420144/seven-saudi-servicemen-killed-in-yemeni-army-s-attack-in-najran

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/yemeni-forces-continue-raiding-border-regions-saudi-arabia/

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465570.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465556.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465559.htm

Pro-Saudi / Pro Hadi reports:

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91540

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

26.5.2017 – BBC

Film: The 'Manhattan of the Desert'

Skyscrapers were built from mud in the 16th Century in Yemen. Some are 11 stories high. They are still inhabited to this day.

It was in this region that people first learned how to live in concentrated environments. It is often referred to as "the Manhattan of the desert".

Adventurer Aubery Rickards filmed Hadhramaut in the 1930s.

The footage comes from the archive of the Royal Geographical Society, which sponsored a series of remarkable expeditions in the early 20th Century.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-40052787/the-manhattan-of-the-desert

Vorige / Previous:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-304-yemen-war-mosaic-304

Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-304 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-304:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or

http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm

Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:

(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)

http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm und / and http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/

Dieser Beitrag gibt die Meinung des Autors wieder, nicht notwendigerweise die der Redaktion des Freitag.
Geschrieben von

Dietrich Klose

Vielfältig interessiert am aktuellen Geschehen, zur Zeit besonders: Ukraine, Russland, Jemen, Rolle der USA, Neoliberalismus, Ausbeutung der 3. Welt

Dietrich Klose

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